bel!eve

25 things about me

2009-02-27T11:37:00.003+05:30

Surya tagged me, so here goes.

25. I cry a little bit when I watch some really senti movies/stuff. Typically happens like 2-3 times a year.
24. I have a collection of all the personal greeting cards I have ever received since 1997. They bring back a lot of memories.
23. "Munbe Vaa" has been my daily morning alarm since Aug 2006
22. I prefer online reading to printouts. I have 233 subscriptions on my Google Reader right now.
21. My left leg is slightly longer and left foot is bigger than my right. Same about the left hand. So, when I think I am standing perfectly straight, I am actually not...and I cant make that out myself unless I look in a mirror!
20. I think I have seen ALL the Tom and Jerry cartoons ever made (I am discounting the Tom and Jerry Kids series, that one is nowhere as good!)
19. I think Cameron Diaz is the most beautiful woman on earth.
18. I used to be a bit short tempered till I was about 15 years old. Now I have my anger under check most of the time.
17. I have a very varied taste in music - Beethoven, A R Rahman, Illaiyaraja, Dido, Iron Maiden, Elvis Presley, Muse, Evanescence...to name some of people I listen most to.
16. I learnt carnatic music for more than a year as a kid. My parents gave up ultimately.
15. I am way more comfortable chatting online/smsing rather than talking over the phone/in person.
14. I dont know for sure if I believe in God, or not.
13. The top three alternate career options I am considering - Nature photographer, Movie Cinematographer, Automobile mag editor.
12. I have an alternate orkut profile which I use to snoop into other profiles once in a while, thats probably like twice a year
11. The craziest thing I have ever done was in a Ford Mustang sometime in Sep-Oct 2006 in Death Valley, California. No more comments on that :)
10. I started creating a "bucket list" on Google Docs a few months back. No, its not because I think I am gonna die young! It is just to make sure I can keep track of all the things I always wanted to do. Top of the list is to drive a Lamborghini.
9. I am pretty particular about information tags on my digital music collection. I can actually claim I have a well organised collection.
8. Swades was the first movie I ever watched First day First Show.
7. I became a huge Superstar fan only after I saw Padaiyappa.
6. I love chocolate chip cookies.
5. Sports I have actually tried a hand at - Cricket, Football, Tennis, Racquetball, Basketball, Tsepak, Badminton, Volleyball. I am not an expert in any of them.
4. All my digital time displays are set to the 24h format.
3. I lost respect for the Oscars the year they gave close to a dozen to Titanic. The fact the Slumdog got so many of those this time around proves that the Academy has not changed much.
2. I completed the full seven day "GM diet" a late in 2008, just to test my willpower. I did lose a couple of kilograms along the way.
1. I used to have a great idea for a perfect cinema viewing experience - have smells/odours along with the audio and video to get a complete authentic experience. I dunno if this idea is being pursued by someone.

(This is not in any order. It is in reverse numbering only because I flicked it from Surya and I am too lazy to change it. So there)

I tag the two readers of this blog - Hetro and Fart.

Mallu nicknames

2008-10-03T01:52:00.000+05:30

Some of the colourful nicknames we have for folks at office...no these are not project mates, jut interesting folks in office :)

Chaaran (Spy) - loves to watch over our shoulders to see what we are doing
Charakku (Femme fatale) - Self explanatory :)
Katta thalla - Middle aged, and decently hot lady
Chiri thalla (Laughing lady) - Old lady with very loud (and irritating) laugh
Thaalparyam Illathavan (Guy who is not interested) - Hubby of Charakku, has only one expression plastered on his face permanently - that of disinterest
Mannunni (Dumbo) - Looks like one, but goes around regularly with Katta Thalla on 'walks' and 'drives'
Kundan (Homo) - self explanatory, again. Pretty much self proclaimed kundan
Mathai kunju - A guy named Mathew, who loves to spit out random cr@p at the slightest provocation - king of bull
Namitha - European looks, Namitha's "figure"
Meeshakkaran (Moustached man) - Spanish dude with a super moustache that covers up most of his face
Salma Hayek - Spanish lady who looks soo like Ms Hayek. Loads of make up, but still ultra hot
Punjabi - Indian-looking girl with a Singh in her surname, possibly 3rd generation NRI
Kochu Kallan (Petty thief) - Dude who roams around with a lady in office, most of the day

10 things to do before Sep 22, 2009

2008-09-22T23:35:00.002+05:30

Baby kinda inspired me to come up with a list of my own...here are my 10 things to do in the next one year:

1. Skydive (*)
2. Drive a sports car, or atleast a very powerful car, on a proper racing circuit (****)
3. Ride a sports bike - the R1 preferably :) (*****)
4. Visit the Niagara falls (*)
5. Ski at Lake Tahoe (*)
6. Visit 2 more countries, in a third continent - after India, Thailand, Singapore (Asia), and USA (North America) - mostly Canada, and Brazil/Peru (**), maybe even Europe.
7. Learn to take excellent portraits with self-designed internal lighting setups. Impress a kickass female and get her to pose for me (*****)
8. Break the 150mph barrier on any vehicle (also related to points 2/3). My max is 113mph (181kmph) in a Ford Mustang (****)
9. Drink absinthe! (****)
10. Complete Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas on my PC (*****)

[The number of stars indicates the probability of execution. The more the stars, the less the probability of my doing it]

Zzzzz...

2008-09-11T20:48:00.003+05:30

Hurry Home
Hurry Home
Hurry Home
Hurry Hooooooommmmeeee

Bolo Hurry Hurry Hurry Hurry Hurry Hurry hey

Why is Himesh in such a hurry? And why is he biting his teeth so much?
I am a fan of Himesh, but this is slightly too much even for me!

P.S. The track list informs me it is Hari Om and not Hurry Home...hmm. Total damage!

And I confer you upon the award

2008-08-30T00:06:00.003+05:30

Heh. And I thought all these days that Awards were conferred on people and not the Other way around.

Original IBNLive.com Link here. Will hopefully be corrected.

God

2008-07-15T02:13:00.005+05:30

I bow to thee!

First a "mature" Guru, and then the out-and-out commercial Sivaji:The Boss and Azhagiya Thamizh Magan, followed by a historical Jodhaa Akbar, a super-youthful Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, a very classical Ada, and now a brilliant Sakkarakatti presenting the best of all worlds. What a cross of genres!

Many of these albums would probably make the top 10 on the list of any true fan of God. If Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam, Ghajini and Main Yuvraj hit the bull's eye as well, nothing like it!

Is this His best phase ever? I think yes!

Cheeni Kum

2008-05-20T22:15:00.002+05:30

64 year old man falls for 34 year old woman. Woman's father, the prospective father-in-law, is just 58 years old, a full 6 years younger. While the father-in-law is happy with Bhajan, Bhojan and Bhajji, an older man wants to get married. Problem? Depends on your point of view :)

This is easily one of the finest love stories I have seen on screen - there is an undercurrent of maturity which convinces you that these two slightly beyond-marriageable-age-folks know exactly what they are doing, however interesting the situation they are in may be. Probably that is the beauty of love - you never know when it is gonna strike, whom its gonna strike, and also probably not when it actually strikes ;)

Thankfully the movie is set in London in the initial stages, so you don't have a lot of the regular cliches - social stigma, people pointing fingers, society, blah blah. You also do not have to sit through cliched motions like the "hero" dyeing his hair to look younger, wearing t-shirts, showing off sprightly dance steps in some random disco, et al. Here is a man who is comfortable with his 64 years old look (though he does wear designer glasses to look cool, and has a cool ponytail too which does not ridiculous in the least), and who has no clue on what he is expected to be doing after falling in love.

PC Sriram totally rocks the scene with some awesomely shot trademark angles and composition. Super choice. So is the choice of Illaiyaraja. I am totally in love with the songs after I watched the movie. Shreya Ghosal makes Jaane Do Na sound so maturely subtly sexy :) What a voice!

The first three-fourths of the movie till Bachchan actually tells Paresh Rawal that he wants to marry Tabu is absolutely brilliant. The movie nosedives from that point and is not worth watching. You can still watch the movie thrice just for the initial scenes where Tabu and AB are just awesome. AB is perfect as the senior citizen with the king sized ego who is awkwardly falling in love with a woman much younger. Tabu is also perfect casting as the 34 year old who is having a lot of fun watching the 64 year old slowly fall for her but having a lot of difficulty admitting it :) The neighbour's kid, Sexy, was a character that could have been deleted.

Balki rocks! Go watch Cheeni Kum!

Bizarre dreams

2008-05-12T20:59:00.005+05:30

Have been having some bizarre dreams of late.

Saturday night dream: I wake up one fine morning to learn that I have a University final examination coming up in less than a week and I have absolutely no clue on the subjects. I initially sweat buckets and then decide to give it up totally, which was when my alarm went off. I actually spent the first hour after I woke up worrying how I am going to pass those exams. No, seriously.

Sunday night dream: Much nicer. I met Thalaivar(!) sitting alone under a tree somewhere and managed to snap a few pictures with him, with the help of a (non-existent) elder sister of mine (I have no clue how such a person materialised in my dreams). I remember telling him that he should quit working with losers like P.V@$u and try working with proper directors like Mani Ratnam and recreate some of the old magic. I also asked him when was the last time he did a movie that did not have to resort to hero-worship. He almost said Baba before he fell quiet.

Wonder whats gonna be my next dream...
That I am a NASA scientist all set to land on the moon to set up the first human community?
That I am a car tester for Ferrari or Lamborghini?
That I sing for Kamal in a Mani Ratnam movie, with music by A R Rahman?
That I beat Roger Federer in the finals of Wimbledon?

Dreams are such impossible things I say :)

Random jottings

2008-04-28T01:57:00.006+05:30

Is it only me or does the music of Dasavatharam sound exactly like what Himesh used to churn out in Hindi a couple of years back with alarming regularity and hit potential? (I am a Himesh fan myself, but agree his songs do not have a very high shelf life) Definitely does not live up to the hype.
Interesting trailer Dasavatharam had. More interesting was how f@rt summed it up - "Asin as Iyengar mami was impactful". Strongly agreer. And strong use of "impactful" :) The interesting part is that there is no mention of UHK (Universal Hero Kamalahassan) in his sum up of the trailer...I wonder if that is because his presence in it was just not effective enough or whether we do expect such gimmicks (for want of a better word) from the man. (Not finding fault with UHK here, I am one of the minority who felt Kamal was a super choice for Vettayadu Villayadu)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a superb comedy! Pucca $ex comedy types. I wonder if this movie will get released in theatres in India at all, and if it does, how much of it would be chopped off...quite a bit I would think. The Preity Zinta look alike Mila Kunis is super strong.
Fedex loses against Nadal on clay yet again. Doubt if Fedex will claim the French Open this year. I am thinking he wont try so hard since the Grand Slam is already outta his reach this year.
Watched Tashan over the weekend. Wish Sriram Raghavan (Johnny Gaddar) was the director. His vision and style + this kind of a budget + these stars + super music = superhit pharmoola. There was so much scope for improvisation and innovation. Baradwaj Rangan has an excellent post mortem here. Other critics have a lot to learn, on writing movie reviews, from this man.
Rangan has another superb piece here. Cant agree more. Has the Indian audience not grown up yet? Or is it the film making fraternity that is still stuck with old world sensibilities?
A brilliant satirical piece on "Kerala Airways". Yep, the Kerala govt is planning to launch its own airways. Oh, Dog's Own Country is a brilliant blog to be up to date on all the idiotic stuff that happens in Kerala with alarming regularity.
At the other end of the spectrum is updates on India's largest IT park - Technopark. This is a superb blog to stay abreast with Technopark news.

Profound

2008-03-11T19:21:00.003+05:30

Quoting a Korean Chae Jong-Ji from this article:

You can always restore cultural heritage.

And I was thinking all these years that heritage usually refers to something that exists/is passed over generations.

Profound learnings.

ATM/B/PS

2008-02-15T22:28:00.002+05:30

Watched a few tamil movies over the past week. Here are some thoughts...

Azhagiya Tamil Magan:

Illaya Dalapathy skilfully, and with alarming regularity, defies gravity. He tries, but is not convincing enough in the double role. It is possiby not his mistake because the storlyline, or the lack of it, lets him down, badly.
Special effects never looked so bad in a mainstream commercial movies with this kind of a budget. Very amateurish.
No screenplay/story as such. Logic goes for a royal toss.
The Extra Sensory Perception angle was pretty much unnecessary. If it was only to contribute to the climax, the storywriter might as well have though about some other gimmick. With a better director, the movie would have totally rocked I think. A great opportunity goes abegging...
Music absolutely rocked! This is one of God's bestest Tamil albums!
Shriya looks awesome, and tries her best to act.
Comedy was pretty good. Shakeela, who comes in the initial reels and suddenly just disappers, could have been avoided.
Worth skipping. Just get the audio CD and listen to it at home. Dont see the video of Nee Marilyn Monroe on TV or elsewhere, you will have nightmares for quite some nights.
Better luck next time Vijay! Maybe you should just stick to your regular fare...

Bheema:

Fight. Fight. Song. Fight. Fight. Song. Fight. Interval. Fight, Song. Fight. Fight. Song. Climax fight. End titles. The movie is just a lot of action scenes strung together by a weak romance storyline and duets.
Good music, yet again, from Harris Jayaraj.
Vikram looks very bulky, and convincing as the one-man army.
Raghuvaran is totally wasted. I had huge expectations from a movie starring Raghuvaran and Prakash Raj :(
Movie looks slick, though some of the action is gravity defying.

Pirivom Santhippom:

The first half is as realistic and honest as a movie can ever be! You sometimes think a hidden camera is at work...they seem so natural. The director succeeds in just steering clear of sounding cliched...well, mostly.
Awesome songs. And easily one of the top soundtracks of 2007. Vidyasagar's most melodious album yet.
Sneha is the 'hero' of the movie, and she is damn effective. I do have my own reservations of her name in the movie - Sala - a kind of short version of her actual name Visalakshi.
Some super comedy scenes - esp the parotta song scene :)
There is not much of a storyline. Nothing really happens in the two and a half odd hours of the movie. Boy from huge joint family gets into arranged marriage with Girl. Girl falls totally in love with the concept, and members, of the extended huge family. Boy gets transfer to random hillstation takes Girl with him. Loneliness gets to the girl. Boy realises this towards the end of the movie. Boy and Girl go back to joint family. Simple! There are no major twists and stuff. Peaceful.
The sincerest movie I have seen in a long long time. Way better than the above two movies. Worth a watch when shown on TV.

Come Come Country Wood

2008-02-14T22:10:00.002+05:30

Kicked off my photo blog. Get to it here.

Inspiration for the title of the blog actually came from here :)

The paparazzi are coming!

2008-02-13T00:45:00.000+05:30

This is really required...especially since lots of US-based mags have dedicated paparazzi tirelessly (and shamelessly) trailing junta like Britney, Paris, Lindsay, Anna Nicole-Smith, "Brangelina" and tons of others who seem to be good fodder for "celebrity gossip". So far, the paparazzi have successfully killed Anna Nicole-Smith, driven Britney totally nuts and possibly killed Princess Diana as well. How would you like it if you had someone following, photographing, documenting and reporting (in public) your every single move? Even thinking of it makes me creepy...

It would be good fun if we import some of these paparazzi people into South India (they are already in Bollywood I guess) though:

Mammootty's new found penchant for yellow Malabar kailees!

Sneha-Nayantara catfight at Billa Returns premiere! Shalini to blame?

Mohanlal loves chilly beef!

Asin creates a stampede at Ascendas food court!

What was KPAC Lalitha wearing at the Asianet film awards?

Bhavana's pet Alsation catches a cold, rushed to the vet!

Suresh Gopi's nephew arrested for suspected drunken driving!

Vishal's new range of footwear finds no takers!

Prakash Raj's surprise visit to the Anna Nagar Saravana Bhavan!

Dhanush spotted working out at the gym!

Vikram loves the bhel puri at Gangotri!

Rajinikant catches a cold! (Following this recent one)

Vadivelu zooms across town in his new black Mercedes convertible!

How many of these would you read?

Postcript: Stumbled upon this howlarious article! The Hottie and the Nottie has zoomed to the top of imdb.com's Bottom 100 movies...now, that is an achievement!

Smooooooooookeeeeeeeeeeeee

2008-02-11T05:13:00.000+05:30

Truly amazing stuff! I bow to the creators!!! Wonder if there are any more of these...
http://video.i.ua/user/625858/4403/22166/?redux

Link via Khunger

The Sunshine State

2008-01-24T22:40:00.000+05:30

Its been around 10 months since I last touched this blog...partly because of loss of interest in blogging, and partly fuelled by other new interests - primarily Ludwig Van Beethoven and Photography.

I did delete a Photo blog I had earlier and registered a new one which I am yet to start using...I have been using Picasa online a lot lately and maybe I will mirror some selected pics in this new photo blog...lotsa work... Photography skills and the urge to experiment and fiddle around with the camera settings have been improving steadily though my poor little Panasonic Lumix digicam is not quite enough to bear the brunt of my "lofty" vision :) Should get a Digital SLR soon...

I have moved from the Summer city of Chennai to the Sunshine State of Florida middle of January. Good fun, the next few months should be...Miami, here I come!

Fedex's loss in the Aussie Open semis was a bit disappointing, but then Djokovic simply blew him away, and deserved to win, every bit...and it is actually great for tennis to see neither Rafael nor Roger feature in a Grand Slam Final after two and a half years or so, these guys have just been so good all this time. Of course, it is way too early to start writing Federer's obituary...just one of his bad days. The good thing out of this is that this has dashed his hopes of a Grand Slam this year (as well) and he will be under lesser pressure to perform at Roland Garros which would hopefully bring out the best in him, and he will hopefully reign on clay this year! Optimistic huh :)

Talking about tennis reminds me, I have started off playing this game called Racquetball out here. Very similar to squash, and pretty good exercise too! Hopefully, the enthu to play the game will be with me for a few more months at least :) The good thing about working in a client location in the US is that you get to go home at a decent time daily and have time for side businesses like this...lemme try and capitalise on that...

Hopefully blogging regularly will also be part of my agenda, at least the photo blog :) As Thalai says in Billa, "I am back" :)

Life...

2007-04-04T14:51:00.000+05:30

Derailed

2007-03-28T15:11:00.000+05:30

You dont see this happen too often...especially when someone like FedEx is the form of his life...

And you definitely dont expect this to happen 2 weeks later...Canas shows FedEx the door, again, this time spoiling a potential hat-trick chance

And this paragraph is definitely very bad news for FedEx fans as he makes his bid to equal Rod Laver's 1969 feat in less than 2 months time from now

Now for the scary part: he's also a much better player on clay than he is on
hard courts. Winning in Paris will be a serious challenge.

(Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/51367)

For the record, Canas' best performance in a Grand Slam event has been making the Quarter finals at Roland Garros, twice, in 2002 and 2005, when he lost to Alberta Costa (who went on to win) and Puerta (who lost in the final to Nadal) respectively. He has won 7 titles, 4 of which have been on clay. In comparison, FedEx has won just 5 tournaments, out of a total of 41, on clay.

May the best man win!

(Sources: Wiki)

When the hunter becomes the hunted

2007-03-02T16:49:00.000+05:30

Hmm...wonder if the typo was intentional... :)

H20@6+GJ = Heavenly

2007-02-26T21:54:00.000+05:30

Watering plants never looked so good to me ever before :)

I admit there was a time when I actually used to see this video every single day, for more than a month...for obvious reasons!

P.S: If you know of any unmarried Iyer girl this tall and awesome looking, who can also water plants with such grace, plz let me know :)

Knights of Cydonia

2007-01-30T15:10:00.000+05:30

Imagine ABBA, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Illaiyaraja coming together to create some creatively wild music beats for a Subhash Ghai 80's potboiler. The result would almost sound exactly like the first two minutes of the very brilliant intro of Knights of Cydonia by Muse. I would not be very surprised to see Kamalhassan or Jackie Shroff making an entry in one of their many 80s action movies with this kind of music. Three minutes and a little more into the song, and you suddenly hear Queen feat. Iron Maiden and Aerosmith. What a track to end the album!

Brilliant! An absolutely lovely album Black Holes and Revelations is...

Rajiv Menon

2007-01-29T17:01:00.000+05:30

He is one of the reasons I wanna watch Guru again. B Rangan interviews him here. And Rangan also questions him about my fav (cinematographic) Guru moment as well - the last part of Barso Re where she is cycling away early in the morning. The scene looked out of the world, something really difficult to pull off unless if you are a master of the trade, which Rajiv Menon most definitely is.

Really need to watch Kandukondain Kandukondain and Minsara Kanavu again for the cinematography learnings. Wish this man would shoot more movies...

No one does it faster than FedEx!

2007-01-29T16:39:00.000+05:30

The Roddick victory was annihilation at its clinically precise best. No top seed might have ever been humiliated on court the way Federer treated Roddick in the semis. And it was obvious in the post-match press conference that Roddick was as pissed as Saddam was during his trial. When have you last heard a phrase that sounded like "it is not everyday that you get your butt kicked like that on court" in a post-match conference!

Gonsalez did put some fight in the first set only to lose the plot completely in the tie-breaker. But ya, much better fight than Roddick...mebbe FedEx had the Grand-Slam-final-jitters :)

All wishes to FedEx to equal Rod Laver this year, and go past him and Sampras next year!

Fedex - Swiss Perfection, since 1981

Starlight

2007-01-24T22:36:00.000+05:30

Far away, this ship is taking me far away
Far away from the memories
Of the people who care if I live or die

A starlight, I will be chasing a starlight
Until the end of my life
I don't know if it's worth it anymore

Hold you in my arms
I just wanted to hold
You in my arms

My life
You electrify my life
Let's conspire to re-ignite
All the souls that would die just to feel alive

But I'll never let you go
If you promise not to fade away
Never fade away

Our hopes and expectations
Black holes and revelations
Our hopes and expectations
Black holes and revelations

Hold you in my arms
I just wanted to hold
You in my arms

Far away
This ship is taking me far away
Far away from the memories
Of the people who care if I live or die

I'll never let you go
If you promise not to fade away
Never fade away

Our hopes and expectations
Black holes and revelations

Hold you in my arms
I just wanted to hold
You in my arms

I just wanted to hold

Starlight, performed by Muse

Movies 2007

2007-01-19T23:42:00.000+05:30

Have been watching too many movies lately...and getting too lazy to write about them. Maybe I should just summarize the movies in here with a couple of lines, for the greater good of the movie viewing fraternity...I have watched a whopping 12 movies in the 19 days that have passed this year!

Hindi-

Vivah (2.5/5): I knew what to expect from a Sooraj Barjatya movie, and he did not disappoint! He remains faithful to his regular formula of rich huge joint family plus perfect hero plus perfect heroine plus perfect dad plus all the perfect people you can think of plus sentiments plus things unthinkable of in todays world..you get the drift. Definitely a movie of the kind which no one else would dare make today!

Main, Meri Patni aur Woh (2/5): Very ordinary story. Worth watching only for Rajpal Yadav's sincere performance.

Woh Lamhe (1.5/5): Horrible. The 1.5 rating is only because of the brilliant soundtrack...but then some of those were lifted...well, never mind.

Guru (3.5/5): A Mani Ratnam movie after a decently long time, I had to love this :) Rajiv Menon's cinematography was pure magic. Wish he gets less selective and works more with a few of our top directors. God is in good form (except for a unhearable Baazi Laga which thankfully does not appear in full in the movie). Beautiful movie. My guess is I would revise it to 4 stars after I watch the movie again!

English:

Jackass the movie 2 (2/5): Grossly gross. You better not be in your sense when you watch it! Kudos to the crazy crew who does such crazy unthinkable stunts

Blood Diamond (2/5): Some very good locales, and a good performance by DiCaprio. But we have had a far better movie made on Africa, albeit on a different subject - Hotel Rwanda. Too cliched a storyline for my liking as well.

Natural Born Killers (3.5/5): One of the best commentaries on the media I have seen. This takes sensationalism of violence by the media to a real extreme. A Quentin Tarantino style of movie making not withstanding, this seriously violent movie also makes sure you dont understand all of what you see! This Oliver Stone (JFK) directed movie is really worth a watch if you can stomach the blood and gore. Recommended!

Malayalam:

Vesham (0/5): I refuse to even write about this Mammotty movie. Utter crap!

Achanurangatha Veedu (3.5/5): Comedian Salim Kumar is fantastic as the hapless father of 3 teenage daughters. The story is really reminiscent of some of the "sensational incidents" that seem to happen on a regular basis in Kerala. Anyone who has been in malluland for the past few years can identify with almost everything that happens to the family. Definitely one of the best mallu movies to come out in 2006.

Vargam (2.5/5): Prithivraj is awesome as Solomon! Some kickass dialogues and confrontations in the first half are worth it. People change colours faster than a chameleon and it moves pretty unpredictably till the cliched climax spoils things. A better ending would have worked wonders.

Bada Dosth (2/5): Time pass. Regular stock Suresh Gopi movie.

Tamil:

Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambham (2/5): Good timepass :)

I will be more regular with th e rest of the movies I watch this year..ok..I will try to

HBD Thalaiva!

2006-12-12T13:53:00.000+05:30

You definitely dont look 57 :-)

Dil Kya Kare

2006-12-07T22:19:00.000+05:30

Am still wondering if Adnan Sami was tailormade for Dil Kya Kare from Salaam-e-Ishq or it was the other way around...either way seems possible...it seems too perfect a choice! And no, I was never really a big fan of Adnan Sami :) Love the energy he puts int othe song, and makes it evident to the listener that he really enjoyed singing this one, that too in his characteristic style! Lost count of the no. of times I have listened to it in the last 48 hrs...One line which says Shirt ki na hosh button ke gives me an inkling we are gonna see Sallu ripping off his shirt for this song ;)

Give Salaam-e-Ishq and Guru a hear...worth it. I am too lazy to write a detailed review for any of them :)

There are some things

2006-12-07T22:08:00.000+05:30

Another "Mastercard moment" happened in my life a coupla days back...met up with a few school friends some of whom I had last met in school, some as long as 9 years back...and it was truly awesome to see some of them after so many years...ambitious teenagers not so long back, now making their mark in different walks of life...

In pic (L to R): Deepak, IT guy; Srikant, IT guy; Venkatesh, MS student; Manu; IT guy; Kiran, IT guy; Sandeep, Movie producer; Venu, Bank officer; Jaikishan, IT guy; Rohit, Businessman

I was genuinely amazed to find that there were a few people who were not part of the Great Indian IT marathon, but were still contributing to India's GDP in other ways.

May I have more "Mastercard moments" in life. Amen.

He's back :)

2006-11-30T15:44:00.000+05:30

Vanthutaanya! Team-la thirumba vanthuttaanya!

This has to be the last chance for the Bengal Tiger. If he clicks this time, he is in for the WC. If he doesnt he is almost definitely gone for ever. Best of luck Sourav! If you insist you wanna exit, please make it a bit graceful this time around!

Schindler's List

2006-11-09T21:10:00.000+05:30

One of the best soundtracks ever composed, give it a hear if you have not heard it/seen the movie.

The theme track is the best of the lot, appearing in two versions, my personal favourite, over the piano version, being the version by Israeli Violinist Itzhak Perlman - a beautifully subtle (and simple) violin piece which is starkly depressing and haunts you long after it stops playing.

One John Williams soundtrack you should not miss for anything in the world!

2006-10-19T22:53:00.000+05:30

Surely there are better jobs than sitting and staring at a monitor 50 hours a week.

Wonder when the majority of today's youth will wake up to this reality. Heck, I am still part of this majority

Obviously

2006-10-13T03:31:00.000+05:30

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact
- Sherlock Homes in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The more the obvious, the more the deceptive. Just another version of Murphy's.

Learnings for the month

2006-10-02T10:29:00.000+05:30

1. Life is unfair. Maybe it was always designed to be that way.
2. Work and happiness obey the law of averages. Make sure you are not idle or happy for too long in life. You might regret it sometime.
3. Over-optimism can be injurious to health.

Murphy in action

2006-09-28T23:58:00.000+05:30

Anything that can go wrong, will.

Pessimist: Dammit!
Optimist: Something better is coming up

Continuum: Anything that can still go wrong, will.

Pessimist: Royally screwed :(
Optimist: Something even better coming up :)

Desam

2006-09-28T06:36:00.000+05:30

Aa laut ja tu oh deewane!
Jahan koi to tujhe apna maane!

(Yeh jo des hai tera, A R Rahman, Javed Akhtar, Swades)

Very subtle way of saying "Dei Kevalamanavane, oottukku thirumbi vaada...inga thaanda unna evanavathu vaazhkaila mathippaan" (Very roughly translated means "Useless bugger, come back home. This is the only place where you will get some kind of respect in life").

I fished around for the lyrics of the Tamil version to figure out the equivalent in there and was really surprised to hear a totally new story...Undhan Desathin just moved a few notches above Yeh jo Des in my playlist! Hats off to Vaalee for thinking on a totally new line!

The Hindi version, if you listen closely, makes no direct reference to India...you can possibly have the song set in (almost) any other country with very minimal modifications. On the other hand, the repeated mention of Thamizhaa does wonders to the impact of the tamil song and the net effect reeks of India, and specifically Tamil Nadu...the best example is these lines:

Gangai unai azhaikirathu
Yamunai unai azhaikirathu
Imayam unai azhaikirathu
Pala samayum unnai azhaikirathu
Kannamoochi aatam azhaika
Chinna pattam poochi kootam azhaika
Thennam thoppu thuravukal azhaika
Katti kaatha uravukal azhaika
Nee thaan thinna nila choru thaan azhaika

You can almost imagine a zoom down to India on the world map, the huge lakes and Himalayas coming into sight first and then zooming in further into the villages and more specifically the greenery and traditions in the villages...beautifully done, with very simple lyrics.

All said and done, this song, in Hindi, Tamil and the awesomely soothing shehnai version, is an all-time classic. God-level.

A Japanese tale of love

2006-09-19T08:34:00.000+05:30

Lunch with B at a Jap restaurant. Jap waitress W approaches our table

B: "How do I say I love you in Japanese?"
W: "!!...err... Aishi teru"
B: "Could you write that down for me please?"
W: *smile* "Ok!"
Me: "Why did you ask her? You can get it in any language on the net!"
B: "Well. Then I could just have mailed my wife the link to some webpage. There is much more to this"

Took some time for dumb me to get the point.

Beautiful. Maybe I will also try this after a decade or so :)

Technicolor

2006-09-16T07:40:00.000+05:30

Another boring afternoon
Mechanical, clockwork
All black n white
Thankless job.

A lazy side glance
and I saw her walk by me
In a skirt
with long oiled hair, reeking of South Indianness
In the sea of blondes and western suits.

Our eyes met
Interlocked
2 seconds, maybe 3
She momentarily took control of the colour button.

A faint smile formed on my lips
and hers
Both unable to look away
Till she passed by me completely.

Refreshing!
Like a cup of steaming hot South Indian filter coffee
in a Starbucks store.

The small moments which make life worth it.

:-)

2006-09-07T01:10:00.000+05:30

It's not nice to replicate your own posts...so I think I will jus link to it this time :)

Musings...

2006-08-28T02:38:00.000+05:30

Moments from a 3-hr waiting period at Chennai airport, not too long back...

- An NDTV special story on the telly, a month after blasts rocked Mumbai. Surprisingly, this was one news story I found it really touching. Sole breadwinners of families, from all walks of life...all their dreams wiped out in just one moment, in one dastardly act. It has made me believe more strongly in Bhagat Singh
- A businessman of Oriental origin watching Oldboy on his laptop in the airport lobby :-)
- A middle-aged lady in a burqa, dedicatedly doing namaz, in an isolated corner of the lobby. Amazing dedication, and sense of direction too :)
- A mallu announcer with a, well, strong accent!
- A big group of 30-40 somethings, waiting for their flight to Bangkok, chattering like excited kids. In dresses of all kinds - formal, casual, colourful...I still wonder why it did not reflect in my body language. Hell I had to be excited. One trip in jan canceled just a week before it was scheduled and I had to wait til lthis happened. I was much younger than them too. And I was in for a longer term than them, with more priveleges. Strange. Education does that to people?
- And of course, people staring at me as I was jotting down notes on a sheet of paper :)

Writing a personal diary can be so much more more fun than blogging. I think we should all try it sometimes. Put that keyboard away and take up your pen once in a while. Sure is fun!

The list

2006-08-27T05:52:00.000+05:30

Maggi...breakfast
Mitsubishi Galant...transport
Cabbage koottu...disastrous
Washing machine...thankfully
Lady's-finger...awesome
Tortillas...Mexican chappatis
Cooking...fun
Eating what I cook...not so much fun
Diet Coke...water substitute
9hr working days...no escape
Dollars, dimes, quarters, cents...confusion
Cool...climate
Coffee machine...fresh coffee
Creamer...sux
Google Maps...wow
Television...untouched
Thinkpad...movies every nite, well almost
GTalk, Yahoo...lifeline
Time zones...sigh
Thanimai...kodumai
New York nagaram...apt

Life...royally boring

This list...evolving

eV suggested this is contrary to my last post. I still think there are some shades of optimism hidden in here :-)

Life...

2006-08-27T05:47:00.000+05:30

...can be injurious to health...

In the long run, we're all dead - John Maynard Keynes

Just one more reason to live life kingsize!
Oh! When will this pessimistic world ever learn...

Generation gap!

2006-08-17T21:14:00.000+05:30

Gummunu pala paadalgal

2006-08-07T12:10:00.000+05:30

New York: Am absolutely addicted to this! God is in awesome form here! Awesome chorus too...wonder where He finds such people. The second interlude is awesome as well. And the brilliant ending too. Check out 0:43 to 0:48 for some sound like a walkie-talkie crackling or something which you can hear if you listen closely. Surya going in a helicopter or something? Smooth, soft, soothing - the perfect single-song-loop worthy song. Top of my list! Wow! (The quality of this song was very bad on my CD, the same on one of my friend's CD as well. Universal problem?)

Munpe Vaa: Shreya Ghosal’s voice is absolutely divine! Was just wondering, this song wud have been mindblowing if this song was a solo by Shreya Ghosal...somehow Naresh Iyer seems slightly out of place in this song. Listen to thozhi, oru sila nazhi, thani ena aanal...ketten ennai naane, just before the beginning of the second interlude. And listen to Naresh Iyer right after this to undserstand what I meant. If not for this, the song would have been right on top of my playlist, for a very long time! The rango rangoli part is very cute. So is the absolutely stunning opening of the song, watever that amazing instrument is. And the beats rock! Beautiful.

JOK: Tanvi seems perfect for the song! And this has an awesome 80s feel, very much like Hello Mr Ethirkatchi, maybe a bit more. Was pleasantly surprised to see that there was only one singer for the song :-) Tanvi does have an amazing range, listen to the ending lines of the song to know why. The ending slowly distorts away, maybe the movie shows this song being played on a gramophone or something? Worth listening, but not too much of repeat value.

Maja Maja: Never was a fan of seduction songs, but Shreya Ghosal again forces you to hear this :) SG and SPBC bring out the “mood” real well :) can get a bit boring after some time though

Maaricham: One of the most experimentative tracks from ARR. Pretty innovative stuff. You will love it after you listen a few times continuously. Check out the beginining lines and the Tejomayam closing. Only God can compose such a song! Dont expect it to be a popular hit, but definitely a hit with people who love different music.

Kummi Adi: Energetic voice, thought the singer was Sriram (Aarumuga Saamikku) first time around. Nice naattupura song. Listening further, Siva's voice is a kind of cross between Sriram and Manicka Vinayagam. Swarnalatha is the perfect choice here.

Machakaari: Great beats, amazingly energetic singing, some unimaginative lyrics - onnu rendu moonnu, 4, 5, 6, 7...macham thaan..aargh! Bottom of list, but a potential hit.

Favourites? NY <> MV > Maaricham > Kummi Adi <> JOK > Machakaari >> Maja Maja

Worth the wait? Hell yeah! New York and Munpe Vaa alone make the album paisa vasool! I was deeply disappointed by Godfather, but now God is truly back! Go grab your copy of the CD right away!

[Krishna, the director of JOK, was a one-time assistant of Gautam. Gautam has used HJ for all 3 of his movies so far (Minnale, Kaakha Kaakha and Vettayadu Villaiayadu). And HJ was ARRs asst once upon a time. So (not taking away the genius of any of the four) would Minnale have sounded something like JOK, if ARR composed the music with Gautam? Just a thought, by a very long shot, and many assumptions. But then, it would be unfair to compare Minnale and JOK because of various reasons. Comparisons, comparisons...]

Can hardly wait!

2006-08-02T13:29:00.000+05:30

God's music releasing tomorrow

And yeah baby, Balboa's back for one final instalment! Releasing Dec 22, 2006...hope it does not turn out to be another R-5

Ha!

2006-07-18T11:40:00.000+05:30

Caught you...yeah, you Mr Terrorist! We have found you guilty of spreading terror messages and discussing bombing tactics on your blogs! And yeah, we also found that blog of yours where you had shared the master plan for the Mumbai serial train blasts and also the comment from your colleague Mr Calvin where he suggested that the bomb be placed in the first class compartment rather than the station itself and your approval of the idea. To prevent you from planning future terrorist attacks, WE have decided to block blogspot.com in the Indian space! We know you dont use LJ or wordpress and we also know that you are too dumb to discuss tactics via mails and chat! Ha! Caught you! Now lets see how you discuss your next terror attack!

P.S. I am using a US client proxy (at work) and this enables me to access the sites blocked by the Indian ISPs. If terrorists are technologically advanced enough to use blogspot, maybe they also have a foreign server to boot, complete with a secure VPN ID for each new member!

Tag

2006-07-17T18:11:00.000+05:30

I am thinking
about my next blog post

I said
with constant regularity, I will reduce my waist size...i say it yet again!

I want
to crash! Badly deprived of sleep and a splitting headache

I wish
I could *edit* my future

I miss
Trivandrum! Just back from a trip home...motivated to settle down in TVM asap

I hear
Yedho Ondru frm Laysa Laysa on my mobile

I wonder
what is the whole point of life

I regret
nothing...absolutely no regrets..yet

I am
(still trying to find the answer)

I dance
when I am in 'high spirits'...gaana paattu, punju bhangra, prodigy...bring 'em on!

I sing
when I am having my bath

I cry
(dont recollect when it was...am obsessed with being happy and spreading the happiness)

I am not
political or religious

I write
when I am in the mood, which is getting rarer

I confuse
all the fuel suppliers (all 3 of them, and yeah the others too...India oil, Indo-Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan petroleum, some vague British stuff; and power, speed, speed 93, hi-speed, extra expensive, extra mileage and the rest of them)

I need
to wake up one hour earlier and push myself to start exercising!

I should
stop listening to gaana songs when I have a bad headache! (in this case TR energetically "crooning" Yammadi Aathadi rt now)

I finish
my food at the table first and my ice cream last

Guess I have to tag along a few ppl...I choose
Yldguy
Hetro
Karan
Surya
Ajith (post this in mallu!)
and all the good and jobless people who are willing to take this up...just keep me posted!

2006-07-17T14:05:00.000+05:30

I deserve nothing more than I get
'cos nothing I have is truly mine

I've always thought
that I would love to live by the sea
To travel the world alone
and live more simply
I have no idea whats happened to that dream

While I am so afraid to fail so I won't even try
Well how can I say I am alive

Life for Rent - Dido

City of God

2006-07-05T14:30:00.000+05:30

Cidade de Deus in Portugese, screened at the 2002 Cannes festival, and based on a true story, this gangster movie is as realistic and raw as it can get.

It starts off with a 'confrontation' scene between Rocket and Li'l Zé, in their early twenties, and then goes into flashback mode tracing their stories from childhood. They grow up in the "City of God". Li'l Zé grows up as a kid who can do anything to make it big as a gangster and become famous, and succeeds in becoming the most feared gangster in the land along with his less-violent and more-practical best-friend-from-childhood Benny, killing everyone who stood in his way. Rocket is much softer and finds a passion for photography within himself. Things get ugly when Li'l Zé wants to eliminate his "competitor" Carrot and his enemy 'Knockout' Ned and things begin to get out of hand with a bunch of kids snapping at his heels.In the midst of all this, Rocket gets a chance for a major break which would boost his aspirations to be a photographer with the local newspaper.

This is a brilliantly shot movie with most of the cast in the age group of 5-25. As one of the characters in the movie explains - "You would be lucky if you lived to be 25 (or was it 20) in the City of God", which is a testimony to how brilliantly violent the movie is. The story also traces the impact of Li'l Zé and his rise on the kids in the city and how they "grow up". Most of the scenes in the movie involve gunshots, chases, drugs and fights, and this is supposed to be a true story! And the ending of the movie is as realistic as it gets. You will have no difficulty in beleiving that this is an absolutely true story inspiste of the powerfully grim visuals involved and the expletives that are very freely used.

Possibly to supplement the claim that this is a true story, there is a news video which appears a bit into the end credits which shows the real 'Knockout' Ned talking to the press after he was arrested by the police, and talking almost exactly the same lines as in the same situation in the movie. This movie does not try to fictionalise any of the events and cram in any stuff in the script that is difficult to believe.

By far, one of the most realistic movies I have ever seen. This is my fav gangster movie, if you could call this one!

The return of the King II

2006-07-04T15:37:00.000+05:30

Ronaldo returns back to Brazil

One day, 2 world records, 2 champions...

2006-06-28T14:37:00.000+05:30

Ronaldo goes past Gerd Mueller

Roger Federer goes past Bjorn Borg

Spain to win WC?

2006-06-26T17:32:00.000+05:30

Spaniard journos say Nostradamus predicted a Spanish victory in the FIFA WC 06! though not in as many words...
Assuming Spain do beat France in the Round of 16 (which they very well might), they have to overcome the challenge of defending champions Brazil in the quarter-final.
So will Samba prevail or will Nostradamus have the last word? You should know in another couple of weeks...or even earlier :)

The return of the King!

2006-06-23T13:32:00.000+05:30

Go Brazil!

Alas!

2006-06-19T16:34:00.000+05:30

Life has no rewind button...

I wish i could rewind...into the past...even if it was just for a moment...first paycheck, first job, post grad, Bengaluru, cracking CAT, first motor accident, driving motorcycles and cars, grad days, winning quizzes, $crewed in IIT-JEE, first crush, school, Thiruvananthapuram, nursery, Chennai, first words, learning-to-walk, proud parents... ...

They say when you are breathing your last, you see whatever happens around you in slo-mo and your whole life plays in front of your eyes...wonder what all I would be seeing in those moments....i wonder... ...

Isnt it funny that when we are young we wish we would grow up quickly, and once we are grown-up we wish we were still young...the anomalies of life...

How true it is that you miss something most when it is no longer with you...so true...

Life is a journey where there is no going back
Wish life had a rewind button...wish I could make the journey from the beginning again...I wish... ...

Weekend

2006-06-16T17:30:00.000+05:30

Darkly lit pub
Headbanging
Long drive
Friends
Beach
Moonlit sky
Scream
Sing out aloud
Rain
Chinese chopsuey
Dance
Himesh Reshammiya!

P.S.: Listening to "Jhalak Dikhlaja"...Himesh's nasal crooning does not sound too bad after all! Ek baar aaja aaja aaja aaja aaaaaja! Of course the influence of Himesh is another post altogether :-)

:(

2006-06-12T10:49:00.000+05:30

A pro-Fedex article and an anti-Fedex article...very contrasting, and very very biased!
And yeah, some stats here

Photos updated

2006-06-11T14:43:00.000+05:30

Photos of my Ooty and Alapuzha Houseboat trips uploaded at my photo blog

FO

2006-06-08T12:41:00.000+05:30

The top 4 seeds/ATP toppers are the last 4 left, fighting it out for glory in the French Open (wht else did u think the subject line meant!)...not something that happens every other year...

Am predicting a Nadal win over Federer in the final, though I definitely want Federer to win.. .atleast once! :D

5 ways to keep in touch with nature

2006-06-05T16:39:00.000+05:30

Bored with the usual sleep-food-television-movie-theatre-shopping weekend routine? Try these sometime...
(1) Go onto the top of a mountain. Hopefully, it will be windy there. Outstretch your hands and sink in the sweet fresh air. Preferably do this in the early evening/late evening. (P.S. This was done by Kareena Kapoor/Bachchan Jr in the dud Main Prem Ki diwani hoon in the song Aur Mohabbat Hain)
(2) Get to some nice lake/backwater spot, preferably somewhere in Kerala. Find a nice coconut tree close to the bank. Pick a full moon day. Dip your legs in the water, enjoy the full moon, listen to the sounds of nature.
(3) Go to some beach in the late afternoon, in the monsoon season. Preferably pick a slightly crowded beach, and a cloudy day, and sit as far away from any sort of shelter. Wait for the rain to pour down. And when it pours, dont bother to get up. Soak up some rain and watch the other people run helter-skelter for shelter. Have fun!
(4) Another one on the beach, thsi at late night, again very close to the sea. Lie down on your back on the sand and count the stars. One, two, three...
(5) This one has to be done in Kerala. Get a houseboat for rent, plant yourself right in front on the nose of the boat, legs hanging down on the sides of boat, preferably late in the afternoon. Feel the wind in your hair!

Do all this alone. With as little human intervention as possible. Revel in the sounds of nature...

I have tried all 5. How 'bout you?

Devathayai Kanden

2006-06-01T09:56:00.000+05:30

Saw her early today morning at the Chennai airport, from a distance of less than 2 metres ...she looks much more beautiful than she looks on screen and seems to have lost some of the flab she had in Thiruttu Payale...

Her beau was right behind her, with his customary light beard and dark sunglasses...

Off they went, in a Nissan X-trail...to their abode in "Anna Nagar/KK Nagar/T Nagar/Boat Club"...

Anti-Tobacco day

2006-05-30T18:54:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow is Anti-tobacco day! For those of you wanting to quit, this is a good excuse!

(Cartoon lifted without permission from here)

Priceless!

2006-05-30T15:23:00.000+05:30

Train Ticket from Chennai to Alwaye - 500 bucks
KSRTC Bus from Alwaye to Alleppey - 45 bucks
Backwaters houseboat cruise from Alleppey - xxxx bucks, dont remember the exact figure

Sitting under a coconut tree, on the edge of Vembanad lake, late in the night, legs dipped in the lake a la Swades, gazing at the full moon and its reflection on the lake, just after a Kerala-style party with your friends, listening to Mele Vellithinkal, Thaazhe nilakkayal... - PRICELESS!

Definitely one of the priceless moments in my life in God's own country a couple of weeks back...more on this when I get time...

Love Failure on air

2006-05-30T14:15:00.000+05:30

There was this call-in programme at 9PM yesterday on Suryan FM called Hello Suryan FM or something, with a host named 'Funky' Shankar i think. The theme of yesterdays one hour programme was kaadhal tholvi or 'love failure'...an interesting theme no doubt. What the programme expected was people have failed in love to call in, share what went wrong, and give some karuthu or kavithai (opinion/message or poem). Some interesting observations on the programme:
(1) The sympathy part from the RJ was pretty bad, but atleast he had the decency to say a disclaimer that 'he was only giving advice as a human being' and not some agony uncle or psychologist or something.
(2) The RJs voice sounded far from 'funky' :-)
(3) Awesome choice of songs initially - Poi Solla from April Maathathil, Venmathiyie from Minnale, Kathal Yenbathu from Oru Kallooriyin Kathai, Unna Nenachen Paattu Padichen and Oru Poyyavathu from Jodi. Then it switched over to love songs - Ennai Kanavillaye from Kadhal Desam, Snehithane from Alai Payuthey and Kanni Vittu from Pattiyal.
(4) ALL the callers were males...now that does say something about females...and males!
(5) Family approval seemed to be a major problem. A couple of callers claimed that the female unceremoniously dumped them!
(6) There were some nice couplets on love failure from the callers.
(7) There were callers of all kinds - those who resigned to their fate and forgotten what had happened, people still laguishing in their past, happy people, sad people...
(8) 3 songs each by YSR and ARR and one each by IR and HJ.

I did listen to the whole programme...and it had me thinking...just what is this love? and what makes people go crazy about it?! It was not exactly very appealing to listen to about 10 callers getting senti about their love failures...I sure dont wanna be one of them!

Maybe it is something very very dangerous...good that I have not found the right woman yet! I can wait! ;-)
I am very contended listening to love songs and watching romanic movies till then :-)

Another 3-movie weekend

2006-05-29T16:45:00.000+05:30

The 3 culprits this time - Pudupettai, Munich and Thiruttu payale
The Other was my partner-in-crime for all three, but i doubt if he will write moret han a couple of lines of review :)

Pudupettai
One eagerly awaited movie, flattered to deceive...not totally deceived though! Though disappointment was a bit high immediately after the movie, I would not mind watching it again..after a gap of one month or so. The story is of a young lad Dhanush, the son of a goonda, who is a Mama's boy. Dad kills Mom one day in a fit of rage and Boy runs away from home. He is all by himself in the big bad world and tries a hand at begging. His path crosses that of a drug peddling gang and they 'recruit him'. Though totally inexperienced, he rewards loyalty with loyalty and can endure great physical pain and still come out alive(!). He kills his own boss to make his daughter, Sneha, a prostitute, his own. How he manages to sustain himself as the new boss and grow bigger is the rest of the story. Sonia Agarwal comes somewhere in between and disappears.
The major innovations in the cinematography has paid off and the movie has an awesome look and feel throughout. Yuvan's music is the real hero of the movie! [Oru Naalil was not part of the movie :( ] Absolutely loved Neruppu Vaayinil on screen, the other songs looked pretty good. The first half is well paced, but the second half drags as Selvaraghavan struggles to retain interest through numerous twists and turns. Having most of the songs in the first half also does not help the second half's pace. Dhanush is good in the lead role, so is Sneha.
Does not live up to the hype - 3/5

Munich
Spielberg's take on the Munich Olympics tragedy, this movie takes a look at what happens after the massacre and how revenge is taken. The 70s are brilliantly reconstructed, and the killings are downright gruesome. Awesome visuals, this is yet another Spielberg classic.
Awesome, especially if you like these kinda movies - 4/5

Thiruttu Payale
Lotsa good reviews from the press and others does not a good movie make. Confusing movie, takes the premise of blackmail a bit too far. Jeeva is good, but not exactly hero material (even though he is the anti-hero here), Sonia Agarwal looks fat, especially in the swimsuit scenes, Vivek comes and disappears, Abbas the lesser said the better, Malavika was good :)
Couple of good songs, Sonia Agarwal in a bikini/swimsuit/whatever - nothing else in the movie - 2/5

Groan!

2006-05-26T18:38:00.000+05:30

Just one line from the Sify review of Pudupettai has thrown cold water on my upcoming weekend plans...

Yuvan’s music and background score is definitely the real winner though the Oru Naalil… sung by Yuvan himself and the pick of the album is missing in the film.

Antha Deiva ragasiyam purikirathe
Ingu Ethuvum nilai illai karaikirathe

Anyways watching the movie tomorrow afty...

RDB DVD - deleted scenes

2006-05-24T15:33:00.000+05:30

Around 7 mins of deleted footage is available in the DVD with and without the director's commentary. The scenes are:

(1) Laxman is practising a dialogue with Aslam. He finds it extremely difficult to look him in the eye and say "yeh des utna hi tera hain jitna ki mera"
(2) Azad, Bhagat Singh and gang in hiding in some place, have had no food for a long time..Sid starts to ‘share’ imaginary biriyani, dal and roti with his friends..Sharman is unimpressed initially and then joins in the fun and DJ gets senti on seeing all this. Finally DJ does manage to get some coins frm somewhere and they all wait in front of a jilebi shop while the jilebis are getting ready. The shop is rt in frnt of a movie theatre and Sid proposes they go in for the movie with the money. His friends are shocked, but ultimately they do end up watching the movie and Aamir gets senti on watching the eotional scenes in some arbit English movie. The make up of the characters with their parched lips and "hungry look" is beautifully done.
(3) Aamir practices some line and gets senti and totally involved in his character – scene signifies that “line between past and present begins to blur” for DJ, according to directors commentary
(4) A scene of the 5 dead bodies being brought out and Sonia and Sue crying on seeing the bodies
(5) The controversial “horse” scenes in the RDB song

Pretty good stuff. None of the scenes, except (5), have any music..guess they were edited off even before re-recording happened.

If you havent got the DVD yet what are you still waiting for?!

Life rocks!

2006-05-22T19:07:00.000+05:30

Some songs can do this to you...listen to them once, u wanna listen to them over and over again...

One of them has come close (really close) to answering what life is all about. Lemme share some thoughts on what I learnt:

Believe in destiny. You are here to do something. Like Shakespeare famously quoted in As you like it:
"All the worlds a stage ..
and all the men and women, merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
and each one in their time plays many parts."
Really really true. Even the Bhagavadgita echoes something on the same line (dont rem the exact Sanslrit words):
Whatever happened was for your good;
Whatever is happening is for your good;
Whatever will happen will be for your good!

This again points to the funda of destiny...you dont control your life, it is some other force which does that...some force which a lot of people refer to as God and some dont believe in.
Me? I do believe in God, but not as the Hindus, Christians and Muslims define it...I guess God should ideally be Mother Nature, or whoever controls Mother Nature.

Again similar to what is echoed in the song i was referring to:

Yethanai kodi kanneer manmeethu vizhinthirukkum
Athanai kanda pinnum bhoomi ingu poo pookum

(How many crores of tears have fallen on this earth, flowers still bloom here...)
Nature does not care what happens to whom...because it was all decided by Nature in the first place...

Athu enakku, ithu unakku, ithayangal podum thani kanakkku
Aval enakku, ival unakku, udalgalum podum puthir kanakku
Unakkum illai, ithu enakkum illai, padaithavane ingu eduthukolvaan
Nallavan yaar ada kettavan yaar, kadaisiyil avane mudivu seyvan

Ulagathin oram nindru athanaiyum paathiruppom
Nadappavai naadagamendru naamum sernthu nadithiruppom
Pala mugangalvendum seri maatikolvom
Pala thiruppam theriyum athil thirumbikolvom
Kathai mudiyum pokil athai mudithukolvom

Maru piravi venduma....?

Last line leaves u thinking...but I definitely dont mind a rebirth! Life can really be fun! It is all in your own hands! That my dear friends is the key to happiness. There is no purpose in life if you are still looking for one. Get onto this planet, live, have fun, die some day. Thats it!
Life is calling..where are you! Go...have fun!

Mani Ratnam's Lajo

2006-05-19T14:14:00.000+05:30

Here and quite a few other Cannes reports...anyone has any clue what this is all about?

India

2006-05-17T17:17:00.000+05:30

We call ourselves a free country. Article of 19 of our Constitution even openly proclaims the same. Then why do we have controversies like this and this?

Did this happen because the Indian Government feared something like this would ultimately happen?

[Key to "this"'s:
1. IAF's green signal for Rang De Basanti (rediff)
2. Bishop's welcome Da Vinci decision (rediff)
3. IAF's green signal for Rang De Basanti (rediff)
4. Quota stir gets Rang De hue (IBN)]

"Rediff Specials" sucks!

2006-05-17T12:37:00.000+05:30

This slide starts off with a wonderful line...and then fails to mention the obvious...truly sucks

The Great Race

2006-05-16T17:11:00.000+05:30

Wacky! Slapstick! Cartoonish! 3 words to describe this 1965 movie which is dedicated to "Laurel and Hardy"...

The movie is about how Tony Curtis (as The Great Leslie), to prove his country's supremacy in automobiles, stages a race from New York to Paris, and the only major competition he faces is from his arch rival John Lennon (Professor Fate) and his clumsy sidekick Max. Throw in a lady reporter covering the event and you have a proper masala movie! This is typical cartoon stuff, and definitely one with some of the most innovative vehicles and wacky ideas ever invented! It claoims to have the largest pie fight in motion picture history (I do agree to that!). Them ovie follows Leslie's team, Prof Fate and Max as they travel through deserts, Alaska, snow, dust, palaces and meet kings, Indians, polar bears(!), gun yielding cowboys..everything you can ever imagine!

And yeah, Curtis and Lennon were the leads in another rollercoaster of fun Some Like it Hot (with Marilyn Monroe) which is considered one of the best comedies ever.

This movie also inspired the cartoon Wacky Races. You wont find one-liners here, just loads of fun!

The Great Race on wiki
(Pic from wiki)

Soon

2006-05-16T17:08:00.000+05:30

we will be seeing animals only if they come like this...at the rate at which we are exploding (population) and destroying (nature)...

3 movie weekend

2006-05-09T12:16:00.000+05:30

Gangster:
More or less a love story unlike what the movie’s title suggests. Starring Shiney Ahuja, Kangna and Emraan Hashmi. Never seen any Hashmi movies since Murder, but the reviews plus Shiney’s presence made me watch this one..and I was not too disappointed. The first half is plain boring as Emraan and Kangna fall in love, make love and all kind of stuff. The second half is where Shiney makes a proper entry and the movie becomes interesting from that point, with plenty of unexpected twists to keep us interested. Shiney does not get a major role, but looks very much the gangster part, and changes drastically towards the end into a character u really sympathise with. The music is awesome with 4 of the 5 making an impact. “Bheegi Bheegi” is what you would call a ‘rock ballad’ and totally rocks! “Lamha Lamha” reminds me of old Abhijeet songs from Josh and Yes Boss. “Tu hi meri shab hai” is awesome in the first few hearings but becomes boring after that. “Ya Ali” is my favourite! Debutant singer Zubeen is brilliant in this one. Overall, a movie u should watch once, might be a bit tiring for a second watch.
3.5/5

36 China Town:
Titles - 5 mins Upen and Isha intro – Upen-Isha song – 5 more mins – Shahid-Tanushree song – 10 more mins – Shahid-Kareena song – Other characters introduced – some comedy – murder - interval – Akshaye Khanna joins the party – more songs – climax – end titles – another song
None of the characters play a full fledged role, even Kareena Kapoor. Priyanka Chopra comes in a blink-and-miss appearance. Upen Patel makes a below average debut. A couple of songs are good, Himesh croons a couple yet again. A movie to avoid even if u r an Abbas-Mustan fan.
2/5

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown:
Had enjoyed Ice Age. IA2 is not as enjoyable but still makes the cut as a fun anime movie. Scrat, the star of the first part, gets a longer role here and is undoubtedly the star of this movie too as the audience roar, wenever Scrat came on screen, implied!
3.5/5

Goodbye

2006-05-04T20:03:00.000+05:30

Farewell to one of the most charismatic leaders of our times...
Rediff says he was the brain behind the "India shining" campaign...though it was not totally true, it sure was one helluva catchphrase!
The country sure will miss his presence irrespective of his political preferences...I have no more words to add...

Why do good people always have such terrible endings? Life sure is unfair...

Surprising...

2006-05-03T18:17:00.000+05:30

Whatever happened to Chennai's dreaded summer temperatures? Here's the stats for the last 10 days (Date - Mean temp - Max temp - Min temp)

Apr
24 31.2 34.5 26.0
25 31.9 36.8 26.6
26 32.6 38.3 27.2
27 33.7 40.7 28.5
28 34.1 40.7 28.9
29 34.5 42.1 29.4
30 34.2 40.8 29.4
May
01 32.8 38.0 28.8
02 31.5 34.9 28.7
03 30.8 33.2 28.6

Expected to peak in May, it has come down majorly since the high on Apr 29th...would be awesome if it continues just this way for the rest of the summer!

(Temperature stats source - KEA)

12217.77

2006-05-02T15:25:00.000+05:30

Inge ethuvum nilaiyillai, kalaigirathey!
Ithu eppo kalaiya pokuthu?

(Nothing is stable in this world...when is this gonna tumble?)

Link

Swades calling?

2006-05-02T15:23:00.000+05:30

Are we going to see more Mohan Bhargavas coming back into our/their country?
Has our country started looking good enough for the NRIs (Non Returning Indians) to settle down?
Is India really shining?

Link

Life...

2006-04-21T14:06:00.000+05:30

Oru naalil vaazhkai inge yengum odi pogathu
Maru naalum vanthu vittaal thunbam theyum thodarathu
Yethanai kodi kanneer manmithu vizhinthirukkum
Athanai kanda pinnum boomi ingu poo pookum

Karu vaasal vittu vantha naal thottu
Oru vaasal thediye vilaiyaatu
Kan thirandhu paarthal pala koothu
Kan moodi kondaal...?

Porkalathil piranthu vittom, vanthavai ponavai varuthamillai
Kaatinile vaazhkindrom, mutkalin vali ondrum maranamillai
Iruttinile nee nadakkaiyile un nizhalum unnai vittu vilagividum
Nee mattum thaan intha ulagathile unakku thunaiyendru vilangidum
Theeyodu pohumvaraiyil, theerathu intha thanimai
Karaivarum neram paarthu kappalil kaathiruppom
Yerimalai vanthaalkooda yerinindru poar thoduppom

Antha deiva ragisiyam purigirathe
Inge ethuvum nilaiyillai kalaigirathe
Manam vettaveliyile alaigirathe
Antha kaduvalai kandaal....

Athu enakku, ithu unakku - ithayangal podum thani kanakkku
Aval enakku, ival unakku - udalgalum podum puthir kanakku
Unakkum illai ithu enakkum illai padaithavane ingu eduthukolvaan
Nallavan yaar ada kettavan yaar - kadaisiyil avane mudivu seyvan
Pazhi podum ulagam inge, baliyaana uyirgalenge?
Ulagathin oram nindru athanaiyum paathiruppom
Nadappavai naadagamendru naamum sernthu nadithiruppom

Pala mugangalvendum seri maatikolvom
Pala thiruppam theriyum athil thirumbikolvom
Kathai mudiyum pokil athai mudithukolvom
Maru piravi venduma....?

Lyrics: Na Muthukumar
Music and Vocals: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Violin: Amalraj
Movie: Pudupettai

Awesomely captures the essence of life - Life is futile. God has created us to do something in this world, we do it and life ends. I am not much of a god-fearing person, and that has not changed much after I heard this, but this one is definitely the best phil song I have ever heard. No translation would do justice to the deep meaning in these words. Especially find these 2 sets of lines particularly striking:

Iruttinile nee nadakkaiyile un nizhalum unnai vittu vilagividum
Nee mattum thaan intha ulagathile unakku thunaiyendru vilangidum
Theeyodu pohumvaraiyil, theerathu intha thanimai

When you walk in the dark, even your shadow is separated from you
That is when you realise you have only yourself and no one else in this world
This loneliness does not end until you end up in your fire/funeral pyre

(This has the only touch of religionism in the song. Theeyodu pokum suggests that this is a Hindu view of life)

The 2nd set:
Ulagathin oram nindru athanaiyum paathiruppom
Nadappavai naadagamendru naamum sernthu nadithiruppom
Pala mugangalvendum seri maatikolvom
Pala thiruppam theriyum athil thirumbikolvom
Kathai mudiyum pokil athai mudithukolvom
Maru piravi venduma....?

We observe the world from a corner
We realise a drama is going on, and we also join in to play our part!
We will need many faces, we will wear them all
Our path may have many twists and turns, we will turn with it
We will finish the story as it unfolds and ends
Do you want to be reborn?

I would have ideally liked a one-second pause at the end of marupiravi venduma...the impact would have been much more.

Amalraj's violin is heavenly. It is not everyday that you listen to such gems. And the lyrics are out of this world! YSR has been criticized for $crewing up the song with his vocals, but I think he is the biggest strength of the song...this is just a common man on the street who has been awakened, and you dont expect him to sing in carnatic raagas! Any experienced singer would have $crewed it up.
If you havent listened to this yet, please do!

[Thanks to The Other (http://unmitigatedlearnings.blogspot.com) for the lyrics. I m still waiting for your detailed post on this :)]

RDB Revisited

2006-04-16T09:46:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: My knowledge of the Indian Freedom struggle is mostly limited to Collins and Lapierre's "Freedom and Midnight" and Rajkumar Santoshi's "The Legend of Bhagat Singh". The views below are based on my interpretation of the movement based on these two sources.

Watched RDB again last weekend. The movie is still brilliant, but I am a bit confused this time around. I thought a bit more about the ending in the movie.

Flashback to pre-Independence days, to the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. They died for the country, and possibly inspired a few youth not to take the path of non-violence as Gandhi preached, but defend themselves from the atrocities of the British by getting back at them.
What happened after that? The revolutionary movement did not gain enough momentum and ultimately non-violence and Gandhi were the poster boys as India got Independence...independence from foreigners that is.

Cut back to this age. Rakeysh equates our political system to the British Raj and the (Defence) Minister to General Dyer,the difference being we elected this Minister while we did not have a say in Dyer's appointment. DJ and gang become Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat & Co and give up their lives. The youth become fired up, say "this is a sad day for democracy" blah blah. This is where the confusion arises.

If it did not work so many years back, what makes the director think this will work today? If everything happened just like it HAD happened, shudnt this too just fizzle out like a flash in the pan?

Of course, the following points also need to be considered:
(1) We are fighting a different enemy, an enemy we have chosen ourselves. This is not just something imposed on us. This is something we have imposed upon ourselves. Our new enemies are our own people.
(2) There is no Gandhiji today. Neither does there seem to be any other similar large-scale fight against corruption et al.
(3) The youth seen then and the youth seen today are very different in the way they think and go about doing things.
(4) Media has made major strides. You can reach out to junta in so many ways today and make yourself heard
(5) People are more educated. And people in power have lots of it. Suppression of revolts in this age is possibly much more easier than it was then.

I personally feel a more pessimistic and bold ending would have been better critically, though possibly not commercially. If Rakeysh draws parallels with Bhagat & Co initially, it should have carried to the very end. A different climax he could have explored was the people in power covering it up just as "yet another terrorist attack" or "foreign forces at work".
Of course one argument is that these dudes convey the reason for the murder of the Minister on radio, directly to the people. BUt then that also draws parallels to the Bhagat Singh story. They had also given themselves up for the same reason - to reach out to he masses - which dint really happen as much as they had desired.

I would have preferred the other ending...

When you say nothing at all

2006-04-05T13:40:00.000+05:30

I blogged about this Boyzone song around a year back. I rediscovered this song on my last trip to Bangalore and listened to it some 10 times in a continuous loop a couple of days back. I realised it was a load of crap! Except a couple of lines or so, I dint feel it was too impactful

The perspective changes people have over the years as they 'mature'...phew!

"Blore Boyz!"

2006-04-05T13:20:00.000+05:30

We were a group of 9, and we were in Bangalore for the better part of the last 3 years...and we called ourselves the Bangalore Boys! Not a very creative name, it was used only to refer to ourselves in our college e-group :)
This last weekend, all of us managed to come together and pose for a photograph, something we could not do all this time...this is definitely one to treasure

In pic - Kambi aka Kiran, Kamu aka Ajith, Desp aka Vinod V,Moorkhan aka Sreeraj, Pakku aka Deepak, Mukkuvan aka Renjoy, Ikkiliaka Vinod S, Antu aka Sajesh, Baba aka Anand

JBDY

2006-04-04T15:09:00.001+05:30

JBDY makes it to the top of the 5 funniest Bwood movies ever on rediff. Pretty good list here, next on my list of must-watch movies is Chupke Chupke :)

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro!

2006-03-27T18:20:00.000+05:30

Vinod (Naseeruddin Shah) and Sudhir are the "50% owners" of Beauty Photo Studio, "Hum Honge Kamyab" is the anthem they live by and they are confident they will make it big in life some day.

Tarneja (Pankaj Kapoor) is one of the biggest and richest contractors in Mumbai, whose philospohy in life "Business ka ek hi matlab hain - doosron ki nuksan aur apna fayada" and "Kanoon aam aadmi ke liye hota hain, Tarneja ke liye nahin!". He sets up a "Super Photo Studio", run by Neena Gupta and Satish Kaushik to spy on "Khabardar" magazine which is located just across the street. The city Municipal Commissioner D'mello (Satish Shah) is hand-in-glove with them. "Khabardar" editor Shoba appoints them to spy on Tarneja and the Commr and snap photos of their dealings. Ahuja (Om Puri) is a perpetually drunk rival contractor. Tarneja murders the Commr after he has been double crossed, and evidence of the murder finds its way to the 2 photographers. This is a wonderful farewell speech from the movie by the new Commr :)

"D'Mello saab aksar kaha karte the, kisi bhi desh ki unnati ki pehchan agar kisi cheez se hoti hain, to woh hain gutter. Woh gutter ke liye jiye, woh gutter ke liye mare...marte marte unke aakhri shabd they.....gutter! Ham unki yaad mein ek din ke liye shehar ke saari gutter band kar denge"

It is then a wild chase for the body of the Commr, and Vinod and Sudhir finally manage to convince the police and catch everyone responsible for the murder and expose the irregularities in the system, after everyone groups against them.

The climax at the Mahabharata drama scene wins my award for the funniest climax ever in a Hindi movie, narrowly overtaking the equally wonderful “Andaz Apna Apna” climax. The ending is also unconventional and in the true spirit of the movie.

This is a must watch for comedy film fans :)

Oldboy

2006-03-19T21:09:00.000+05:30

Finally saw Oldboy....it is a true masterpiece...period!

For junta who have not heard about it, the story goes sthg like this:
The main protagonist Oh Dae-Su is happily settled with his wife and a small kid. He is mysteriously kidnapped one fine day and finds himself locked up in a room with just a TV set for company, and he has no clue why he is there. He gets fried dumplings for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He begs his faceless captors for escape, then asks them why he is there, then becomes violent and then submits to his fate. Plz note that this takes months..years...He finds out from the telly that his wife is murdered after one year of his disapperance and he has been cleverly framed for the crime. He stays in the cell for fifteen years, amidst visions of ants crawling all over his body, which symbolises his loneliness. He manages to dig through the wall, and after around 11 years, feels the rain outside...bliss...He also trains himself watching martial art movies and practices shadowboxing. He is cleaned up from time to time. A melody rings in his room and valium gas blows in. He becomes unconscious and is then cleaned up.

One day, after 15 years, he is released. He meets a young girl Mido at a restaurant where he goes in for a snack, eats some live squid, and passes out. Mido takes him to her place and nurses him back to normalcy. The rest of the story is how he finds out why he has been imprisoned for 15 years, and according to a mobile call he receives, he has only 5 days to find out. A lot of blood flows as the question changes from Who? to Why? to Why 15 years? and he finally finds out the answers...He comes face to face with his captor who urges him not to think why he was held captive, but to think why he was released...

This is one truly gorss movie, be it the hammer scene, the squid scene, the tongue scene...plenty of instances. The single-shot hammer+knife action scene is just brilliant! And this is one movie from which our heroines have something to learn - they have to see this movie to understand what a "sex scene crucial to the script" means. This has one, and that is ultimately the crux of the story. If i tell you anything more, I will give away most of the story :)

Ultimately, this is the best revenge movie I have ever seen. Loved the revenge which is definitely a bit too much, but very very sweet for the villain. Revenge rarely gets sweeter than this. Easily one of the best climaxes ever!

Watch this if you would like to watch a very engrossing gross revenge movie, where the revenge is not through bloodshed, but through something much worse...

P.S. 90pc of Sanjay Gupta's Zinda was copied from Oldboy, frame by frame, even the bl00dy hairstyle! This state of affairs in Bollywood is pathetic to say the least. SG successfully indianises it to make it illogical and boring and take away the brilliance of its original version. Sanju baba is a software engineer in Bangkok! ROTFL! Having been to Bangkok, I can safely say that less than 2pc of the people there speak English, God knows wht kind of software Sanju was developing there...maybe he knew Thai as a third language? Lara Dutta is there only for the sake of it. It doesnt get more ridiculous than a female Indian taxi driver in Bangkok. And god knows why she falls in love with him and makes love with him as well. Ridiculous! Dammit, I dont even remember what happens to her in the end. Plenty of loose ends and a bad and blatant copy. I vow never to watch a Sanjay Gupta movie ever again! Shameless..

P.P.S: For Chennai folks who are really enthu to watch this and cant source this movie, drop me a pvt mail...I will try to get it over to you!

Meenaxi: A Tale?

2006-03-18T21:15:00.000+05:30

I watched this movie for 4 reasons:
(1) MFH: It is not everyday that you get to see a leading painter make a movie. Thot it would be interesting to watch a painter using celluloid as his canvas to create his painting...
(2) Kunal Kapoor: After RDB, decided I need to watch his debut movie as well :)
(3) Santosh Sivan: GOD of cinematography, he manages to more than impress with each of his movies
(4) GOD: With God handling the music, and fans hailing it as one of his very best, there was some more motivation to watch the movie and see how it has shaped out as a video.

With these great expectations, I set forth to watch this movie, and I got royaly $crewed! Definitely one of the worsht movies I have seen!

I am yet to figure out what the story is all about. Lemme try.
There is a Nawab dude who is a famous author. He is facing a writer's block and is looking for inspiration. He finds Tabu at a qawwali ceremony and decides to write a story on her. She also follows him(!) and asks him to write according to her whims and fancies. He meets a mechanic Kunal (played by Kunal Kapoor) and makes him the hero of his story. I think all this happens in Hyd. The story takes place in Jaisalmer and Tabu and Kunal fall in love. Then the interval comes in. Tabu does not like the story and walks angrily out of the Nawabs house, at night. Some cyclists surround her, God's 'cyclist's rhythm' plays in the background, suddenly cyclists disappear, Nawab comes out with the script, and Tabu throws them into the fire asking him to write a new story! The Jaisalmer chapter ends abruptly. This is the part where the movie becomes bad to worse!

In the new story, Tabu is called Maria and it happens in Prague! Kunal is still her lover and they (again) fall in love. Tabu speaks in a bad Europen accent and tries sincerely, but it manages to get on our nerves soon enough. Author also meets this Prague Tabu, god knows how! Now we get confused as to who is who! This love story also ends abruptly and we see Nawab going to the qawwali (seen in the first scene) and meeting Tabu again! Possibly means all this was his hallucination/dream/watever the hell. Thankfuly the credits roll..God bless the viewer!

Movie totally sux. Only 2 good things about the movie - God's music and the other God's cinematography. Santosh Sivan is pure magic in this movie as well, and captures Rajasthan, Hyd and Prague in all its splendour. Tourism would definitely have got a boost, had someone seen this movie that is :)
God scores as usual, though the videos leave much to be desired. Most of them were screwed up so badly with only my fav track from the movie "Yeh Rishta" captured in a beautiful riot of colour. The lesser said abt the other tracks, the better.
Tabu looks too old for the movie, and her voice does not help. Maybe Madhuri Dixit or someone much more beautiful with a sweet voice would have been much better off in this role. Poor Kunal Kapoor is totally wasted, and Raghubir Yadav, as the Nawab, looks totally confused throughout the movie! (the viewer is more confused than him!) MFH makes a 'cameo' appearance, and thankfully does not mouth any dialogues.

Please dont watch this movie unless you want to see Rajasthan captured splendidly on camera!

P.S. Found the "Oldboy" DVD in the US (Unorganised Sector) out here, which is the best place to get such movies. Cant wait to watch it :) For those of you who dont know, this is the original Korean movie from which "Sanjay Gupta's" Zinda was copied, frame by frame.

LIFE :)

2006-03-14T18:53:00.000+05:30

Life at home without work = Bliss :)
Am home for 2 more weeks and am armed with a pack of VCDs/DVDs as diverse as The Shining to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Iruvar to Kaakha Kaakha, Sarkar to Jaane Bhi Do yaaron, A Clockwork Orange to Basic Instinct...expect some detailed reviews to hit soon..joblessness rocks!
The heat in Trivandrum is worse than in Chennai at the moment, television and Cric 2005 remain my main timepass here...
Oh yeah, a review of RDB and Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu music is also pending :)

Goodbye!

2006-03-10T15:39:00.000+05:30

As I leave my current job for (hopefully) greener pastures, I do have to miss a lot of things!
My companion for most of my exploits in the last 11 months, my R-51 lappie...

The wonderful people who have been my very good friends over my 7-month stint at the Chennai office. Though I could not get to meet everyone today, I did try my best and this is part of the crowd at my now-former employer's office here. (In pic below, from L to R: VinLan, GooHan, Sudesi, DD, Prasad, Arvind and Vimal)

Also will miss the sametime chats with the "HEPP gang" and certified-flirt/fin-doubts-enquiry-database Preeti (who incidentally celebrates her birthday today! Happy Bday!), the arbit discussions out here in office, discussions on Captain and everythin under the sun, the coffee machine, official trips to Bangalore, the parking lot, the security staff, the 11.15 AM breaks, late night con-calls, lunch at Sivasai...an endless list...am missing a lot of names here, but then time is running out for me I have to surrender the laptop soon :(

Bye! (Sniff)

Sudesi!

2006-03-08T14:30:00.000+05:30

Yeah yeah yeah, I went to a theatre to watch this movie :)) Long time since I saw a really nice comedy.
The movie was at Woodlands theatre, and the whole place was filled with huge cutouts of Captain in politician dress (you know, the white shirt, white veshti stuff), and even a pic of MGR somewhere in between...
I asked for two tickets at the counter. The guy at the counter gave me one look:
"Inga Sudesi Oduthu"
"Theriyum!"
"Athukku thaan ticket edukkareengala?"
"..!!!"

Attack the theatre and we just ,manage to catch the titles rolling out. We learn that the CM of the state, leader of the Ka Ka Thoo Ka party (yeah, this IS the name, no exaggeration!) is on his deathbed. Sayaji Shinde does some fraud, kills him and becomes CM. Enter Captain (as Sudesi) in an orange track-suit, jogging(?) on the middle of some road, in the middle of the day. He finds some villains and bashes them up. Typical intro scene. Then some punch dialogues. Sudesi enga thappu nadanthalum thatti ketpan. Of course, we have no clue how he lives in a huge mansion like house alone with his mother. He does not do any work for a living as far as I could make out. But then this is a Capt movie - no qns to be asked! Scenes of Captain with his thoppai, in a tight T-shirt, atop a Yamaha Enticer are genuinely funny. He goes to his village and conveys some messages to the people of the village in some song. IN some misunderstanding, CMs advisor bomb his house and his mother is dead. Captain is standing some 2m away from the bomb, but is ejected out of the building with minor scratches and a glass piece embedded in his heart(!) while the mansion is completely reduced to rubble. This is the interval. Phew!

He gets a CD which has a video of the current CM killing the ex-CM and blackmails the CM with this making him do a lot of good work. Oh did i mention the scene in which Captain meets the CMs advisor on the Kancheepuram High Road (which is near the ECR tollgate acco to the movie), in a very thick leather jacket, in the sweltering heat of Chennai? Dont miss it for your life!

Just before blackmail begins, Capt has some fun with Shinde and puts a bomb in his house. He wars Shinde where the bomb is and Shinde escapes. Then Capt says the mots famous punch dialogue in the padam:
"Naan joke-a panninathukke nee ivlavu serious aaytuye! naan serious aanen, unna joker aakiduven!"
Aaha...pullarippu...

After that, CM is blackmailed bigtime and forced to implement a lot of good projects. CMs goons have no impact on Sudesi. In one of the most stylish action scenes in the movie, Captains sunglasses are somehow thrown off his face vertically upward by some goon during a stunt. Capt smashes him up and a couple more of his mates and looks up - the sunglasses land perfectly on his round face. Brilliant! Enna style-u!

Somewhere along the way, a heroine is introduced who is really desperate to marry her 'mama' Sudesi, they sing a duet or two then she disappears. There are also a couple of item numbers with some Bombay items.

Election happens and Shinde wins 100 pc of Tamilnadu seats - somethiung never ever seen before in history. In the climax fight, one scene stands out. Bad guy smashes a heavy iron bar into Captains hand and the bar (obviously) bends around his hand :) Awesome stuff!

There is even a gap scene in which Karunas describes the differences between MGR and gabtun

Karunas: "Ungalukkum MGRukkum ore oru vyathyasam thaan irukku. Avar naakka kadichu pesuvaru, neenga palla kadichutu pesuveenga"
Gabtun: "Innoru vyathyasam irukku, avar kaiyyala adipparu (cut to some old MGR movie action scene), naan kaalala adippen!"
He then kicks Karunas....omigod, I was ROTFL...comedy man comedy!

Anyways, though this does not better any of his older movies, this is a must watch for action freaks, comedy lovers, Capt fans, politically ambitious guys, punch dialogue fans...what the heck, go watch the movie!

Sigappu Rojakkal

2006-03-07T15:44:00.000+05:30

Sigappu Rojakkal (Red Roses)
Starring: Kamalhassan, Sridevi, Goundamani, Bhagyaraj
Story, Screenplay, Direction: Bharathiraja
Music: Illaiayaraja

WARNING - SPOILERS GALORE!

The movie starts off with a shot of a big house...then a shot of a couple of yellow roses, with a lady pleading in the background - "Leave me! Leave me!". Then a high pitched scream, and a stream of blood falling on the roses - and then the title - Sigappu Rojakkal (Red Roses)

Kamal (Dilip) drives through the city in his car, interspersed with shots of discotheques and someone planting a rose plant in what is presumably a garden. Kamal enters the bar and the first shot is repeated again. Cut to the next day - a gurkha opens the gate of the house and a gardener adjusts a freshly planted rose plant and watering it. A rat suddenly runs past and the gardener chases it and kills it brutally. He buries the dead body and plants a rose plant on top of it, linking it to the earlier shot - presumably another dead body. The gardener then takes a cup of tea to the outhouse. The servant wakes up his boss with his bed tea, shooing the (pet) black cat which has settled down on the bed. The servant boy eyes the bra lying on the bed next to the master and then looks at the second cup of tea he has in his hand. The master sends him off sayin the other cup of tea is not reqd. The systematic nature of the boss is reflected in the way his clothes are arranged - he has 7 cupboards, each labelled with a day of the week.

Kamal's house is majorly set in red, even the food trays. He chats with the young boy and dismisses him saying he should not be wasting his youth like this and should get an education. Kamal agrees to sponsor the education. he starts off to the jail and the gardener rushes to get him a red rose for his jacket. He presents a dress and two (red) apples to the prisoners. He is introduced to some of the prisoners by the jailor, one of them being a guy who kills his wife but now repents for it. Kamal pauses and some screams run in the background, presumably from a disturbing flashback. He chats with the jailor and says that his annual visits to the jail is because of his Dad who was wrongly jailed for 7 years for a mistake he had not committed and was mentally affected by that bcoz of which he still stays like a prisoner in the outhouse. [Please note the fact that kamal says 'jailed for a crime his Dad had not committed'. We get to know of this crime later :)]

Kamal enters his office and wishes all his staff Good Morning. There are 4-5 ladies lined up for a Steno interview. Kamal's eyes fall specifically on a modernly dressed candidate - Chitra. He gets into his room (which has a couple of female posters/statues) and opens a cigarette case which plays a fast version of the Godfather theme(!) when opened. The length of the interviews is shown by his cigarette stubs. The first ciggie is completed in the first interview and just half of it in the second. Chitra is called third and she projects herself to be very arrogant. Plenty of double entendres happen in the interview and she is finally appointed. There is also a brief flashback of 3 stills which occur in the course of the interview indicating she is probably the next victim.

Sridevi [:)] makes her entry as an employee in a textile shop. Kamal, on first sight gets into the flashback- still mode again - one more victim identified! The first shot in the shop is awesome with some very good mirror-camera effects. Beatifully done! Kamal looks for Sridevi and goes to her counter to get hankies, which is what she handles. He selects one finally - a pink one with the pic of a black kitten on it! First round of flirting happens. He goes back to the shop the next day to 'get hankies' again. He finds an orange hanky with a red rose pic on it hanging from her waist and asks for it. More flirting happens. One more camera reflection shot.

He gets back to office and finds out Chitra has not been in for 2 days.The next day he is back in the shop, manages to make Sridevi come and talk with him and ends up gifting the orange-hanky-with-the-rose-pic to Sridevi. Meanwhile Chitra's bro calls up the office enquiring about her and informs the manager that Chitra has not come home for a week. Sridevi's friend in the shop, Sheela, ends up meeting Kamal at a beach by some confusion. We are shown Kamals car driving away and a dialogue "Ayyayyo, innikku ice-cream close!". The next day, Kamal gets a rose from his gardener as he leaves (indicaiton of another victim). Sheela goes missing and we see Kamal in a red hazy light thinking about how he screws Sheela and stabs her to death.
Kamal goes to the shop and follows Sridevi as she leaves, meets her and drops her home. He confesses his love for her on the way. Then a duet and they are soon deeply in love with each other. Kamals chitchat with Sridevi borders mostly on sex. A mini chat (no dialogues, only music) in a red-lighted room between Kamal, the gardener and a 3rd man (presumably the Dad) happens and the Dad disapproves of something while Kamal ultimately takes the upper hand. Kamal and Sridevi get married at the registrar office and they are off to a temple on Sridevi's request. Kamal views his regular atheist views a bit :)
One nice dialogue happens when Sridevi wants to buy an idol:
"Intha saamikku enna pa vilai?"
"Pathinettu roppanga"
"Aen sarada, ithu romba cheap irukke. Vere ethavathu costly saami-a vanga koodathu?"
He treats God no more than a commodity :)

He intros her to the 3 ppl in the house - gurkha, gardener and servant. Of course, her marriage sari is red.
She brushes against a toy mongoose and screams.
"Bhayantuttaya?"
"Ithukku uyir irukka?"
"Paaren uyiri irukkannu!...Uyirille..Indha maari intha veetla nariya irukkum, paathu bhayanthudathey!"
Strong!

He shows her sound the house. The library is filled with books on sex. He shows her a game room where there are games of chess, carroms, table tennis, etc where there is only one chair for each and the table tennis table has a mirror on the other side.
"Yaar kooda vilaiyaduveenga?"
"Enkooda thaan!"
"Thaniayava?"
"Ya. Vaazhkai poora naan jayikkanam engarthukaaka thaan ellathileyum thaniya vilayadittirukken.
Enakku pidikkatha onnu vazhkaila tholvi sandhikkarathu. "
"Apdina innikku thaan vazhkail mudhal mudhala tholvi sandhikka poreenga"
"What do u mean?"
"Hostel-la ellam gameslayum naan thaan first! Inniku aadi ungala thokka vekkaren paarunga"
"Wait until dark! Innikku rathri thaan ennoda vilaiyatte unakku puriyum"
He then symbolically puts the red (queen) coin in the carrom board into the hole.

He forbids her to get into one room saying it is totally dustyand was his Dad's old room. They meet the black cat as well. He shows her the outhouse and says his father stays there and states the 'crime not committed' story again.
"Sila paeroda vidhiya vedhana pedaruthunaala maathida mudiyathu"

They get into the bedroom for some fun whn the fone rings and some bad news is conveyed. He tells his wife he is off to office to meet his managing partners urgently. A brief encounter with the kids next door get Sridevi some information on some other female who was supposedly in the house earlier.

Kamal gets into office to meet Chitra's bro who has come to enquire about her. He has with him a bearer (Bhagyaraj) from a hotel where she was spotted with a boyfriend and wants to take him around the office to meet his staff and find out if the 'boyfriend' is there. Bhagyaraj does not find the guy he is looking for and Kamal hides from him.

Flashback to the hotel where Kamal and Chitra get really angry with Bhagyaraj for something. Kamal gets back home to a newly set up pooja room. His entry startles Sridevi when she drops some kumkum on the floor (sentimental linkages here). Kamal does not remove his shoes to get into the room and gets out when Sridevi asks him to. Sridevi goes and enquires about the other lady whom the kids mentioned about. Kamal gets angrier with Sridevi's questions as she also quizzes about wat happened at office. He just answers "Nothing", then loses his control and scribbles "Nothing", in red, on the table. Sridevi is psyched and Kamal apologises putting the blame on tension at office. Kamal says he has to leave urgently, and to Sridevi's question on what he wants for dinner replies - "Innikku nee thaan ennoda virundhu"

The gardener then gets into the bedroom when Sridevi is busy cooking and strategically places a camera, presumably to tape the night's events. Sridevi is still disturbed by the earlier outburst and leaves the tap in the kitchen open as she leaves. She bathes, dresses, and waits for her hubby. She wears a saree with a red rose pattern :) One more duet "Ninaivo Oru Paravai" happens as she waits.

As she waits, bored, for her hubby to return, she cuts an apple. She cuts her finger accidentally and some blood falls on the bedside table. In one of the most chilling scenes in the movie, the black cat jumps in and licks the blood. Sridevi runs away to the window, scared, and watches the rain outside. She sees a fountain of water coming out from a point in the garden and thinks the pipe has sprung a leak. As she watches in horror, a human hand comes out from that point in the ground. SHe runs in and ends up in the 'forbidden room'. Meanwhile Kamal is in the hotel.
As Sridevi recovers, she finds Kamal's life history scribbled on the walls. She reads it and understands that he has had very bad experiences with females right from childhood - first his stepmom and then his boss' teenaged daughter. He finds work in a rich house where his boss murders his unfaithful wife after catching her in bed with her lover. He adopts him as his son and brings him up.
"Naan unna epdi valakkanamo apdi valakkaren"
This boss is of course the dad and the murder was the 'crime for which he was wrongly imprisoned'.
Sheela is the sixth victim as he mentions there. Sridevi remembers his words - "Innikku rathri thaan en vilaiayaathu unakku puriyum"/" Innikku nee thaan enakku virunthu"

Sridevi slowly gets down to the outhouse and finds the Dad and the gardener engrossed in watching the tape in which Kamal screws and then kills Sheela. She screams, runs out and locks them inside. Meanwhile Kamal brutally murders Bhagyaraj in the hotel toilet and comes home just as Sridevi is escaping. Kamal finds out her intentions and unlocks the outhouse. Sridevi manages to run away from the house. The chase goes on to a cemetry where Kamal trips over and is pierces in his heart by the sharp end of a cross, possibly indicating an atheist being punished by a tool of God. Finally he is captured by the police.

After investigations the police come to know tht after each murder, he buries them and plants a rose plant at the spot. The conclusion is that society has made him what he is now. Sridevi meets him in jail on his birthday where he seems to have forgotten his past and has some difficulty in recognising her. She gives him red apples. She is praying for him to get well and refuses to find a new life. We see Kamal writing Sarada on the walls of his cell, the only word he seems to recollect. This time, he writes, "Sarada en Manaivi". The last shot zooms into a crying Kamal's eyes...RED with tears...

This was probably one of Kamal's and Bharathiraja's best movies. Manmathan was loosely based on this, while Ghajini had the scene in which the life history of the hero is scribbled on the walls and someone else finds out his past by stumbling upon it. The dialogues are not too many, but in most places they have a deep meaning. Music plays a big role, there are many scenes in which the characters mouth silent dialogues, with music the only thing we hear. Red plays a big role throughout. A masterpiece to be relished by people who love hatke movies.

Mathrubhoomi redux

2006-03-07T14:42:00.000+05:30

Looks like what was depicted in Mathrubhoomi is not too far away....Scary!

(Hat tip: Yldguy)

Uncyclopedia!

2006-02-27T16:07:00.000+05:30

Dint know wiki had something like this too! This was definitely good, and this was offensive but imaginative in parts...seems this is just coming up..oh yeah, i started on uncyclopedia with this!

Godfather!

2006-02-23T14:47:00.000+05:30

No, not the Marlon Brando-Al Pacino-Francis Ford Coppola-Mario Puzo classic, this is the very indian Ajith Kumar-K S Ravikumar-Asin-A R Rahman version. Stuck in the cans for long, the music by ARR was supposed to be rocking, and released last week.

This should have been an album to be released in the late 80s-early 90s to have become a hit.

Illamai - Classic 80s song! Kamalhassan wont look out of place shaking a leg to this song! The instrument which goes dingidingi diding dinguding (watever it is called) is irritating to say the least. Lyrics are very arbit - Unakku hero naanadi, un udaikku villain adi (!!!) Interludes are nothing to rave about. Aslam tries his best to sound like Hariharan, and succeeds to a slight extent.
More crap in the lyrics -
Sofia, Malika, Fauzia, Yashica;
Tamil naatiil ethanai kilikal kootukkul
varavendum athanai kilikalum veetukkul

Vairamuthu anna, please give us a break!
The remix version tries hard to be a dance-floor track and ends up as a disco version good enough to be played in the early 90s again! Mebbe a retro picturisation of the song would help. Blaaze does some more rap but this is easily his worshtesht song, esp the computer effected sound towards the end. He reminds me strongly of Baba Sehgal in the end!

Innisai - Much better...nice smooth classical song. The male voice in it (Naresh Iyer?) rocks bigtime. This is one singer who has a great future ahead of him. So does Sowmya(is it?) who sings with him. Good one!

Kamma Karaiyila - Strong dappankoothu song by Rahman, but he does not seem to ocomfortable in composing songs of this genre (if one may call dappankuthu tht!). The kamma kamma kamma part and oovva oovva oovva parts are pretty catchy, but this is not a song which is going to stay with you for too long. Average.

Kaatril - Another 90s song, and getting SPB to sing it does not help it in anyway! Sadhna sounds great though, and the song is good too if you discount three factors from the song - SPB, the background beats and the very very irritating Hey Saahiba (watever the hell tht is in here for!) In short, Sadhna Sargam is the only saving grace of the song :) (Whr is Reena Bharadwaj here? Dont temme she mouths the Saahiba part)

Theeyil Vizhunda - God gets to work on this one and lends his vocals. A sad number which reminds you a lot of Mera Yaar Mila De from Saathiya, this is an above average song, more so after you have heard the rest of the album. Very senti stuff.

Thothapuram - Except for the starting part in which the female makes you think this is an item number, this song is decent. However Gult in the songs reduce the impact to a big extent. Rahman makes the kids sound great, as he always does. This is no Errani Kurrathani.

On the whole this album is a bit on the bad side, if you also consider the amount of hype before the launch. Buy it only if you are a very staunch ARR/Ajith fan.

However the movie sounds interesting with Ajith donning three roles - a Dad and his two sons, one of the sons being a eunuch. Interesting...but inspite of Asin in the movie, I would rather play it safe reading the reviews first and then trying out the movie myself! Looking forward to the release...

Thanmatra

2006-02-20T12:38:00.000+05:30

One of Mohanlal's best peformances
One of the best Mallu movie I have ever seen
One of the scariest movies to come out in recent times (No! This is not a horror movie!)
One of the movies which makes you feel really really sad
One of those very few mallu movies whose songs make you depressed on continuous hearing

Awesome movie...Period!

P.S. Other has vowed never to watch the movie again...it was just too depressing for him!

Matrubhoomi - A Nation without Women

2006-02-16T10:51:00.000+05:30

Saw this Manish Jha movie yesterday - the first I have seen on female infanticide, and possibly the only one made so far with this theme.

*Spoilers Galore :)

The movie's opening scene shows a lady in childbirth. She gives birth and the cries of the just-born child trigger celebrations among the junta gathered outside the house. The celebrations stop abruptly when the midwife grimly announces - "Its a girl". The next scene is one of the most chilling I have seen in any movie, the girl child, still crying, is immersed in a big bowl of milk and killed, with no regrets...female infanticide which was (and still is) so rampant in Indian villages.

Cut to many years later - you see a guy dressing up as a woman as we see hundreds of restless men gathered in front a stage and cheering as if they are just gonna witness Mallika Sherawat (just an example!) strip naked on the stage and do a strip dance. An announcement begins "Bhaiyon aur Bhaiyon" indicating the mix in the crowd...the transvestite(?) comes on to the stage in colourful clothing and make-up and starts dancing (to Shilpa Shetty's Main aayi hoon UP Bihar lootne) sending the male crowd into raptures. Another scene after this shows a group of young men getting tokens to get into a dimly lit room with a television, where they have been subjected to the same porn movie 3 days in a row. The chatter among the menfolk in the room show their desperation for female company and their eagerness to see a new porn movie. The show begins and they fall silent, and stir their sexuality. One of them, unable to control himself, gets into a nearby barn and makes out with a cow...desperation...

We are then exposed to a typical family in the village of a father and his 5 sons (Sushant Singh being the youngest), with the sons desperate for a female in the family and the eldest son cribbing to his Dad about not getting him a bride. A marriage broker Panditji is in search of a bride for the family and he asserts that all girls from 8 to 80 (or some such number) have already been taken and there's no one left. And the Panditji is a homosexual as one of the scenes indicate.

A marriage soon happens in the village (after 25 years) and there are celbrations throughout. The bride's father collects 2 lakhs and 2 cows (dowry ironically) as a price for his daughter. Just when the ceremony is about to be solemnised, it is discovered that the bride is actually a boy...

Panditji, on his way back to his village after the 'marriage' chances upon a girl - Kalki (Tulip Joshi) - and milks her father's greed for money to his advantage. She is soon married to all 5 of them (in an awesome marrige scene) for a princely dowry of 5 lakhs and 5 cows. After the marriage, the family sits down and decides who gets her for each night of the week (One of the brothers does not want Friday coz he is on vratha!), and to complete the week the father stakes claim, and also gets the first night. Kalki bears the brunt of the family every night and we see her transforming from a beautiful young girl to a burnt out machine used only to satisfy the sexual needs of the family. Sushant Singh acts differently from the rest though, and pities her, and ends up being a very good husband to her. This turns the other family members jealous and they murder Sushant. Kalki tries to elope with the lower-caste helper in the house, but is caught and the boy is murdered and cut up into pieces. Kalki is chained to the cowshed where the lower caste people take revenge on her for the murder by raping her every night. Finally she becomes pregnant, but the abuse continues inspite of this. One of the brothers, on seeing her bloated stomach does not realise she is pregnant and thinks her stomach is filled with gas or something - painful...

Finally when the village realises she is pregnant, the whole village stakes claim to the child and a caste war ensue. Kalki gives birth in this backdrop...to a girl child...movie ends...

The theme is awesome, and the non-graphic scenes still manage to leave an impact. If you are the kind who likes thought-provoking movies, then go for it! This is NOT a commercial movie.

Go off the record!

2006-02-09T17:15:00.000+05:30

New feature in GTalk - "Go off the record"
This ensures that the chat is not stored in the mail acocunts of either of the people chatting!
Google Talk is still pretty primitive, but they definitely do offer some very innovative features...cant wait for the full version to be launched!

Rang De Basanti!

2006-01-30T16:10:00.000+05:30

Stuck to a personal resolution of not reading even a single RDB review before watching it myself so that I go in with very little expectations. And it worked! yeah, it worked like hell! A very satisfying movie indeed! We need more movies like this instead of mindless shit like Zinda. People raved about Zinda being shot in Hollywood style and stuff, but if we really need to reach those standards, we need movies like this - ones that really make you think and possibly squirm in your seat.
This is possibly the first movie in which Aamir Khan takes a backseat and a newcomer like Siddharth nearly takes centrestage. Infact, if you take out an actor of Aamir Khan's stature and put in someone else, you realise that "DJ" was just one of the group of friends! Of course plenty of references to Bhagat Singh only made me like the movie more :) and the even better part was Sid 'playin' Bhagat Singh's character.
Lots of nice things about the movie make it Hollywoodish. The way the songs are fitted in, for example. If i remember right, of the 8 tracks, only the title track is in totality in the movie, and very rightly so! Reflecting back on the movie, it does not make sense for the full song to be placed in the movie. All the other tracks are there in the movie, but not just as mute background pieces, they capture the mood beautifully! I also dont remember anyone mouthing the song as well, it just plays in the background...beautiful touch! And God acshully comes up trumps by providing youthful retro music! Check out the scene in which the police chase Chandrasekhar Azad for instance. You get some nice rock/jazz playing in the bakground instead of classical tablas and stuff! Beautifully done. Also beautifully done was the music in the title credits - absolutely loved it! Definitely one of God's best!
Siddharth was a revelation. So were Kunal Kapoor and Sharman Joshi. Atul Kulkarni was awesome as ever, and so was Aamir Khan. Soha Ali Khan looked the cute part, and Sue was also pretty nice. And the characterisations were also strong - Sid being a bit of an aloof character, and a chain smoker; Kunal Kapoor's fascination for tea and art; Sharman Joshi's and DJs one liners...neat!
The movie does not end up being preachy like Swades possibly did, though the re-enactment of the Simon killing in today's life looks a bit too easy to have been executed. And the conclusion of the Rapid Action Force on the nature of the youth holed up inside the radio station seems perfectly logical. And they were just doing their duty too!
I remember watching Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Aks just because it had Manoj Bajpai and Amitabh Bachchan in it (yep! in that order!) and i came away disappointed. Truly felt the director was torn between making an art film and a commercial film and ended up somewhere else. In RDB, he strikes a good balance. An awesome movie after a long time - THIS IS A MUST WATCH!

P.S: My roomie had a doubt on the status of the documentary shot by Sue - was it completed? I just though it was irrelevant. A typical Bwood movie might have shown the movie being released at the end after all the events and their repercussions, and the movie going on to be a big hit with praise from all quarters...thanks a lot Mr Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra for not telling us wht happened to the documentary!

Who cares for this world?

2006-01-25T12:42:00.000+05:30

Yeh Duniya Jahaan Aadmi Kuchh Nahin Hai
Wafaa Kuchh Nahin Dosti Kuchh Nahin Hai
Jahan Pyaar Ki Kadr Hi Kuchh Nahin Hai
Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye, To Kya Hai ?

Jalaa Do Ise Phoonkh Dalo Yeh Duniya
Jalaa Do, Jalaa Do, Jalaa Do Phoonkh Dalo Yeh Duniya
Mere Samne Se Hata Lo Yeh Duniya
Tumhari Hai Tum Hi Sambhalo Yeh Duniya
Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye, To Kya Hai?

Beautiful lines from Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957). Believe me, these lines make a whole lot of sense when you watch the movie and the situation. Awesome movie, awesome songs with some very beautiful and hard-hitting lyrics, and some hard revelations on society and people's greed for money...I should write a blog on this movie soon...

Oh, did I mention that Waheeda Rahman looks like an absolute angel!

(Lyrics copied from here)

Swift...swifter!

2006-01-23T14:29:00.000+05:30

My folks recently acquired a Silver Maruti Swift Vxi. Was completely floored by the car's looks and could not wait to drive it. The engine was the same as the old Esteem engine which I was pretty familiar with, and I started off on a mini-highway drive to test out the car. I am not too good at writing car reviews, so I will just put in some feelers on how the car is...

The car accelerates brilliantly...i went till some 60 in 2nd and 90-100 in 3rd gear before I changed gears not wanting to screw a new car :) and the power steering is very precise. Brakes are good for the kinda limits u can push this car to in city driving...this is definitely MY kinda car! Power, steering, brakes...all i want in ample quantity!

Anyways one nice touch I liked was the in-car lighting..it does not switch off like a conventional light..it slowly dims off...very nice touch in a 'small car'...wen you switch off the car and get out, the light switches off only after you engage the central locking from outside..neat!

This is definitely the cheapest driver entusiast's car available in the Indian mkt right now!
Go get a test drive right away!

Happy Birthday!

2006-01-06T16:59:00.000+05:30

I still remember the first time I heardGod at work - I was only 9 at the time Roja was released - with very little interest in music and stuff. That was when my Dad suddenly called me and my Mom to the radio some day, tuning into Ceylon radio (thats right! You can hear Ceylon radio at Trivandrum!) saying there was an interview with this dude Rahman who had done music for this movie called Roja by Mani Ratnam (whose Mouna Raagam I had supposedly seen more than 10 times by then inspite of not understanding much of what it was!). I also listened absently thinking this Rahman was the actor Rahman who had gone iunto music direction. Three years passed...another Mani ratnam movie by the name Bombay released amidst great controversy and I remember my uncle in Bombay telling us that the cassettes were totally sold out in Bombay city - SOLD OUT in a week of release! That was a time when I started listening more to music mainly under the impact of ARR music...the passion grew and in some 4-5 years I became a full-fledged fan, understanding and appreciating God much more. The song which is played most in my car right now is the very beautiful Luka Chuppi.

I attained Nirvana at the fag end of last year when God sang Vande Mataram live in pouring rain at midnight with thousands of screaming people singing along with him - that is one moment of my life I will never forget..

Oh God, demi-gods may come and go, but u r the one and only GOD! I bow to thee! I bow to your music!

Pudupettai!

2006-01-06T16:47:00.000+05:30

Heard the soundtrack recently. This is my take on it:

Peek into assassin's life: Neruppu Vayinil
A surprise here as Kamalhassan croons this one. He is amazingly effective, and this is possibly one of his best renditions. There seems to be some sort of a special relationship between Kamal and Yuvan as the former also featured in a few songs in one of the latters earliest non-movie albums. Somehow this music reminds me of music from Kill Bill/Kung-fu/karate movies in some parts, possibly because of the instruments used.

Clash of Titans: The war story
Starts off like a Superstar inspired music track, then moves into some soothing symphony. Brilliantly done, this can fit into any Hollywood movie! Damn good!

Gangster's marriage party: Pul Pesum, Poo Pesum
The beginning is typical '50 cent' ishtyle :) and so are the beats! Vijay Yesudas sounds pretty good, making his mark after Kadhal Mattum in Kadhal Konden. A slightly above average song, which seems situational. Would do good if it apears as a background score, but considering it is a "marriage party track", i doubt if this would end up in the background.

Going thru emotions!: Prelude
Another very good track, lots of instruments...

It all comes down to this: Oru Naalil
YSR gets down to sing this one - my personal fav from the album. Melodiously sung by YSR for a change, and sexy interludes make this a damn good song to put in a continuous loop inspite of this being the longest song in the album at 6:25.
Especially liked these lines from the song -
Iruttinile nee nadakkayile un nizhalum unnai vittu vilakividum nee mattum thaan intha ulakathile unakku thunai enru vilangi vidum

Night Life: Varriya
Not too much singing in this song. Interesting track, but not all that great. Maybe a good video will make it sound better.

Oru Naalil: Composer's Dream Mix
This for the dance floor! The remix is pretty decently done.

Our Story: Enga Area
An interestingly done gangster song. I seriously expected a gaana song which is the opposite of wht the track turned out to be...raps and western beats make it a very listenable number - another one for the dance floor!

Pudhupettai Main Theme: Survival of the fittest
Damn! This number too would never feel out of place in a Hollywood movie! Brilliantly done!

Selling Dope: The Beginning
Sounds like an extension of the main theme, and retains the classiness. Only violins and a trumpet make up this wonderful track. Another one for a H'wood movie!

All tracks in the album get 5 stars on raaga.com, which is not surprising. YSR scores a hat-tick with Selvaraghavan after Kadhal Konden and 7-G. The only concern is that the music is a bit ahead of the times for Tamil Nadu. The Selvaraghavan-YSR combo is definitely one of the most successful ones of our times after ARR-MR, ARR-Shankar, ARR-SJS and HJ-Gautham.

Hats off to YSR for giving this god-level album! 4.5 stars outta 5 to this! This is one of YSRs very best!

Happy New Year? Screw it!

2006-01-06T16:31:00.000+05:30

The best new year I have ever had in my life! My 9 month old mobile fone is stolen on New Years early morning, I spend the whole day at a police station in some god forsaken place near Salem in Tamil Nadu, i brave bad roads (sorry, bad is an understatement, there was NO freaking road) for hours to drive down to Chennai fighting depression on losing the fone, face parking issues and pick up fights at my flat, I am stuck up with an old Nokia mobile which has a pale excuse for a keypad, there is no progress in the police case, try to sober up a bit thinking of the Las Vegas trip I was scheduled to make next week, and plan a Bangalore client visit this monday, the travel approval for the Bangalore trip is right now stuck somewhere, and today morning a bomb is dropped saying the freaking Las Vegas trip is freaking cancelled.
My mind is not working, music by AR Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja is the only thing driving me right now

whattaway to start a new year! Hope this is a prelude to a nice new year ahead..or did I speak too soon? Keep visiting this blog for the debacles soon to follow in my life this new year

Did neone just wish me a Happy New year?

Strings!

2005-12-15T11:23:00.000+05:30

"Yeh hain Meri Kahani" frm Zinda is one of the most awesome songs I have ever heard! Anyone who is even a remote fan of Strings can instantly recognise this as one of their songs...This is undoubtedly Strings' best composition! Just saw the video once on one of the music channels and it has been on my winamp on near infinte loop with ocassional pauses for Rang De Basanti.
Whattasong! Hear it...get hooked!